US State Dept. sees significant increase in domestic terrorism in Greece

State Dept. sees increase in Greek terrorism

ATHENS, Greece — The U.S. State Department says domestic terrorism increased “significantly” in Greece last year following riots in Dec. 2008 sparked by the fatal police shooting of a teenager.

The State Department’s country report on terrorism notes more than 430 “security incidents” in 2009, more than those recorded any other year for the past two decades.

The issue of domestic terrorism came to the fore again when one of the most recent groups to appear, Sect of Revolutionaries, claimed responsibility last week for killing a journalist. It issued a proclamation vowing to turn the country into a war zone and warning tourists that Greece was “no longer a safe haven of capitalism.”

Last year, the same group said it killed an anti-terrorist police officer guarding a witness in a terrorism trial.