Greek police detained 10 people and arrested two after the side entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Athens was vandalized with red paint.
Officials said a group of people on motorbikes threw red paint at the embassy’s parking entrance at around 3:30 a.m. local time.
An anarchist group known as Rouvikonas, which has targeted other Western institutions in the past, claimed responsibility for the attack in an internet post.
The group cited “American imperialism” as well as Greece’s deal with the neighboring Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to change its name in return for NATO membership, and the recent U.S. decision to pull out of Syria, a move the anarchists said delivers Kurdish forces there “to the semi-fascist state of Turkey.”
U.S. Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt condemned the attack as “silly and senseless vandalism” in a Twitter post.
A video was released:
