Assailants attack Microsoft HQ in Athens

ATHENS - Agence Frence-Presse

Attackers targeted the Microsoft main office in the Greek capital in a pre-dawn arson attack Wednesday, smashing the entrance with a mini-van and setting off gas canisters, police said. AFP Photo

Assailants attacked the offices of Microsoft in Athens early Wednesday, driving a van through the front doors and setting off an incendiary device that burned the building entrance, police said.
 
There were no reports of injuries in the pre-dawn attack on the U.S. company’s headquarters in the Greek capital, located in the Maroussi suburb north of the city center.
 
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Authorities said no warning call had been made before the attack.
 
Greece has experienced attacks by several small armed anarchist or domestic terrorist groups for decades, which usually target official buildings, banks or symbols of state power with small bombs or incendiary devices. The attacks usually occur late at night and rarely cause injuries.
 
Police said initial information indicated three people had been inside the van. They forced the two security guards at the building to leave before they reversed the van into the front entrance, smashing the door.
 
The two security guards were giving testimony to police.
 
The assailants then triggered an incendiary device inside the van that police said appeared to have consisted of camping gas canisters and several containers of gasoline.
 
Police forensic teams examined the burned-out van, which was still outside the blackened entrance later Monday morning.
 
Although they have died down over the past year, attacks had spiked following the fatal police shooting of a teenager in Athens in December 2008 that led to widespread riots across the country.
 
One group that had appeared in the aftermath of the rioting had set itself apart by claiming responsibility for shooting dead an anti-terrorism police officer in central Athens in 2009 and a journalist in 2010.