Greek armory looted; November 17 group suspected

ATHENS, Greece -- A cache of weapons, including automatic rifles, was stolen from a military armory after thieves tunneled through a wall, officials said Saturday.

Suspicion immediately fell on the embattled terrorist group November 17, but authorities also left open the possibility it was a heist by ordinary criminals.

The theft, discovered late Friday, took place on the Aegean Sea island of Kos, military authorities said.

Police searches were carried out around Kos, an island near the Turkish coast, and at its ports.

The army gave no details of the missing weapons, but state media reported the cache included 15 .45-caliber pistols, three automatic rifles, and three machine guns.

Weapons of that type have been favored by November 17 in the past.

A hole was dug through a wall from an adjacent storeroom holding tents and the alarm was not triggered, media reports said.

Defense Minister Yannos Papantoniou was on holiday on Kos when the theft was discovered and is supervising the investigation. Police were investigating whether it was linked to a bank robbery Monday on the nearby island of Rhodes, where thieves got away with about $25,000.

The probe turned to Greece's most notorious terrorist group, which has come under a major police crackdown after operating for 27 years without suffering a single arrest.

November 17 is linked to 23 killings and many attacks and robberies, including thefts of arms and equipment from police stations and military facilities.

Police have captured 15 suspected November 17 members and seized more than a hundred weapons since a botched bombing injured one alleged operative.

Authorities say some key terrorism suspects remain at large, including a man accused of being a top assassin.

But the government played down a possible link between the robbery and the November 17 fugitives. "We must not connect everything to terrorism," government spokesman Telemachos Hitiris said. "The members of November 17 are in prison."

November 17 professes a mix of hard-line Marxism and nationalism and takes its name from the date of a 1973 student revolt against the 1967-74 military junta.

It first emerged in 1975 with the ambush killing of the CIA station chief in Athens. Its other foreign victims include three other Americans, two Turkish diplomats and its most recent bloody strike: the June 2000 slaying of British defense attache Brig. Stephen Saunders.

On Wednesday, a proclamation attributed to the group claimed it was "still alive" and could take hostages if it considers the trial of suspects unfair. The government said it did not believe the statement was genuine.