A [2]A youth uprising spread in Greece for a second day Dec. 7, with thousands battling police in Athens and Thessaloniki, despite the arrest of two officers over the killing of a 15-year-old boy. At least 34 have been injured and 13 detained in street clashes. Protests erupted after Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot in Athens' left-wing enclave of Exarchia after the boy allegedly tried to throw a firebomb at a patrol car. As soon as news of his death in a local hospital was confirmed, hundreds of youths in Exarchia began attacking police cars with stones and firebombs, burning dozens of cars and smashing shop windows. Police responded with tear gas, but the uprising quickly spread to Thessaloniki and the resort islands of Crete and Corfu. Tourist zones have been evacuated and streets closed to all traffic. (AlJazeera [3], Dec. 8)
In related news, on Dec. 6 an underground group claimed responsibility for an improvised explosive that exploded outside the Athens bureau of the French AFP news agency two days earlier. In a telephone call to the Eleftherotypia newspaper, an anonymous individual claimed the incident on behalf of the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire, "in solidarity with our French comrades." Greek detectives on the case believe this is a reference to the recent arrest [4] in France of nine youths suspected in the sabotage for high-speed TGV passenger train lines. The Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire has claimed responsibility for more than 30 such attacks in Athens since it emerged in January 2008. (AFP [5], Dec. 4)
Photos of the Greek uprising are online at Anthrolopologie du Présent [6].
See our last post on Greece [7].
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