Bomb Injures Former Greek Cabinet Official

A car bomb injured a former Cabinet minister as he was being driven to work Monday, and authorities blamed a leftist group they said may be trying to disrupt next month’s national elections.

Former Public Order Minister George Petsos, a senior member of the ruling Socialist Party, was taken to a hospital in the suburb of Philothei. Doctors operated to remove glass shards from his face and body.

Petsos, 42, was being driven to his office when his vehicle passed a parked auto rigged with explosives, police said.

A police driver and a bodyguard were slightly injured, police said.

“We have no real leads in the case except that the (rigged) car and its license plates were stolen,” said a senior police official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

No Responsibility Claimed

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but police said they believe it was the work of the November 17 terrorist organization, an elusive group that has claimed responsibility for 13 killings and many bombings since 1975.

The government said the attack was aimed at disrupting the June 18 general elections.

The November 17 group is named after the date in 1973 when troops and tanks crushed a student uprising against the 1967-74 military dictatorship.

The group aims to overthrow the government through armed revolution and establish a Marxist regime.

Petsos claimed that the terrorist attack against him was the result of the “libel and false reports about me” in Greek newspapers. “(They) gave the terrorists the tools to justify my eradication,” he said.

Greek newspapers have alleged that Petsos was involved in a multimillion-dollar financial scandal surrounding a Greek banker who is in custody in the United States awaiting a hearing on a Greek extradition request.