Terrorists admit to war grave bombing

A previously unknown terror group has claimed it bombed British war graves in Athens in retaliation for alleged UK attempts to smash the notorious November 17 organisation.

A home-made bomb exploded in a shed at the graveyard between the coastal suburbs of Faliron and Alimos, where more than 2,500 soldiers killed in Greece during World War II and the 1940-45 Greek Civil War are buried.

The device, made from gas canisters bound together with a battery and charger, set light to stores of petrol when it went off on Saturday. Police say the five-point star emblem of the terrorist organisation November 17 and the letters NELA were scrawled by the shed.

The initials stand for New Revolutionary Popular Struggle. ELA, without the "New", was generally recognised in the Seventies and Eighties as an offshoot of November 17, but ceased to operate about a decade ago. NELA claimed responsibility for the bomb in a phone call to a local newspaper.

It is believed British security experts have helped Greek police fight the November 17 group since the murder in Athens two years ago of British defence attach? Brigadier Stephen Saunders. Greek politicians have recently spoken out in praise of the role of British agents in fightingterrorists.

The bombing came after police detained a number of suspected November 17 members when they raided an Athens apartment on Saturday and discovered heavy weaponry, including dozens of anti-tank rockets.

The first breakthrough against the group came on 29 June when Savas Xiros, a 40-year-old religious icon painter, was seriously injured during a failed bombing attempt in the tourist port of Piraeus.

November 17 appeared 27 years ago with the assassination of a CIA station chief. It has since murdered another 22 US, British, Greek and Turkish officials and businessmen. Police said today they expected up to six people to be charged "any day now".