Athens - Greek police offered a reward of 600,000 euros (893,000 dollars) Tuesday for information that could lead to the arrest of three men believed to have links to domestic terrorism. The newly-elected socialist government, under the leadership of George Papandreou, has vowed to crack down on the criminal activities of self-styled anarchists by establishing a Citizens Protection Ministry.
Michalis Chryssochoidis who runs the ministry, has promised anonymity to anyone with information about Simon Seisdis,33, his brother Marios, 28, and Grigoris Tsironis, 30.
Police had linked the men to Revolutionary Struggle, Greece's most wanted terrorist group, the daily Kathimerini newspaper reported. The three are believed to have carried out an armed robbery on a branch of the National bank of Greece in January 2006.
The group first emerged in 2003 after police broke the November 17 group, best known for firing a rocket-propelled grenade into the US embassy in Athens in 2007.
Revolutionary Struggle claimed responsibility for the shooting of a police officer and a car bomb outside the Athens Stock Exchange. It has vowed to carry out future attacks against financial institutions, politicians and police.
Chryssochoidis' decision to issue a reward for the capture of the three suspects comes just a few days after he called for the reinvestigation of the deadly terrorist group, November 17, which was disbanded in 2002 and whose key members are serving jail sentences.
Greece has been plagued by frequent bombings and arson attacks targeting banks and multinational businesses since police shot a teenager in December last year. The shooting sparked the worst riots the country has seen in decades.
On Tuesday, a little-known Greek anarchist group calling itself the "Council for the Deconstruction of Order" claimed responsibility for a bomb attack outside the party offices of a minister and deputy minister last week in the northern port city of Thessaloniki.
The group said in a statement posted on a leftist website that it had carried out the attacks to protest the new Socialist government's efforts to crack down on terrorist activities.
"We will attack anything that goes against us," the statement said.
The violence that was being orchestrated by left-wing and anarchist groups helped bring down the outgoing conservative government, which has been criticized for its inability to protect the public.
In 2007, Greece and the United States had offered a reward of 800,000 euros for information leading to the dismantling of the group.
