British Defense Attache Gunned Down in Greece

A British defense attache was assassinated here Thursday, and Greek police found evidence pointing to the terrorist group November 17, whose members have eluded capture despite a 25-year legacy of bloodshed.

Brig. Stephen Saunders, 52, the defense attache at the British Embassy, was gunned down by two assassins as he drove to work.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but police said ballistic tests showed that the spent shells found on the scene came from a .45-caliber automatic pistol, a weapon used by November 17 in previous attacks.

The group has killed three Greeks and an American with the same gun since 1980 and wounded a Greek lawmaker, police sources said.

In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair denounced Thursday’s killing as a contemptible act of “terrorism.”

British officials said Thursday that the government has sent a team of anti-terrorism experts to Greece in the wake of the slaying.

The Foreign Office said a team of police officers had been invited to Athens by Greek authorities to provide advice on the investigation into the slaying, while a ministry security expert would review embassy security.

However a Foreign Office spokesman denied that the British security officials were being sent to press Greek investigators to find Saunders’ killers.

“Greece invited us to send out policemen to provide expertise and help with any information that might be useful to them,” the spokesman said.

The slaying has sparked outrage in the international community, including the European Union, and prompted calls for Greece--which has a poor track record in pursuing terrorists--to find the perpetrators.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis called it a barbaric act and pledged to protect public safety.

The site and method of Thursday’s killing were almost identical to previous slayings by November 17, named for the date in 1973 that a student rebellion was crushed by the military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974.

Two gunmen riding a motorcycle pulled up to the passenger side of Saunders’ car on a roadway clogged with morning commuters. The assailants fired through the window and fled into the heavy traffic. Saunders died later in a hospital.

Saunders was on his way to a meeting with a top British Defense Ministry official, Baroness Symons, to discuss London’s attempts to sell Challenger 2E tanks to Greece.

Britain is widely derided in Greece for its close alliance with the United States and for supporting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s air war last year against Yugoslavia.