Greece's Deadly Terror Group

July 4, 2002

ATHENS, Greece (Reuters) -- Greece's elusive and deadly urban guerrilla group, November 17, has killed 23 people, including U.S. and British diplomats.

The group emerged in 1975 and was named after the date of a student uprising in 1973 against the military junta then ruling Greece.

Authorities have never managed to corner the clandestine organisation or to prosecute any of its members.

But on Saturday police caught a suspected member, injured in a botched bomb attack, and on Wednesday an N17 base was uncovered in a central Athens flat.

Dedicated to the overthrow of the capitalist state, N17 has gunned down international diplomats and military personnel, Greek politicians and industrialists.

N17 communiques, claiming responsibility for attacks, show the group opposes Greek membership in the European Union and NATO and is bitterly hostile to Turkey and the United States.

It has used a mixture of techniques, including point-blank range shootings, automatically triggered mortar bombs and rocket launchers, and drive-by shootings.

But the group mostly preferred using its signature 0.45 calibre pistol for assassinations.

After each attack the group sends a pamphlet, bearing the group's red star, to the media.

Initially the group portrayed itself as a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary group, but later pamphlets have revealed a shift towards Greek nationalism.

Experts believe the group is a tightly knit band of only a handful of people with long-standing personal ties dating back to leftwing student groups fighting against the seven-year dictatorship between 1967-1974.

But police are convinced younger members have joined the group in recent years, saying a few witnesses who have caught glimpses of group members have put their age in the 20s and 30s.

Original group members are now believed to be in their 50s.

November 17 first killing was in 1975 when CIA Athens station chief Richard Welch was gunned down.

The last confirmed November 17 hit was the drive-by shooting of British military attache Brigadier Stephen Saunders in June 2000.

For years the group has taunted Greek police, who only managed some embarrassing botched brushes with the guerrillas, much to the displeasure of the country's Western allies who charged Greece was too lax on terrorism.

It was only after the Saunders attack that authorities, with outside help from the U.S. and Britain, were able to track down evidence leading to Wednesday's successful operation.

http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/07/04/nov17.profile.reut/index.html