Anarchist attacks seen as response to squat evictions

Firebomb attacks against police targets early on Wednesday in Exarchia are believed to be a retaliation by members of anti-establishment groups to a spate of evictions from anarchist-run squats in the area on Monday.

A group of self-styled anarchists lobbed Molotov cocktails at a riot police unit on the corner of Spyrou Mercouri and Tositsa streets, close to one of the squats that was closed down by police on Monday. That raid occurred at 1.30 a.m., five minutes before another group attacked police on Harilaou Trikoupi Street, pelting them with stones.

Meanwhile, a group calling itself Cell of Anarchist Witches claimed responsibility for using spray paint to vandalize a chapel in the Athens suburb of Sepolia on Monday night.

In a statement on an anarchist website, the group said the move was a protest against the Church’s decision last month to establish the first Sunday after Christmas as the “Day of the Unborn Child.”