Greece captures far-left militant

Paula Roupa, a leading member of the defunct Revolutionary Struggle was arrested in Athens Thursday morning, along with an accomplice.

"Anti-terrorist police have arrested 48-year-old Paula Roupa," police said in a statement. "A 25-year-old woman aiding her was also arrested."

Roupa and her companion and co-leader Nikos Maziotis were arrested together in 2010. They were released pending trial but subsequently fled, becoming fugitives.

Maziotis was recaptured in 2014 after a shootout with police in Athens. Last year Roupa hijacked a helicopter in a failed attempt to spring Maziotis from prison.

The couple's 6-year-old son was born in an Athens hospital shortly after his parents were imprisoned in 2010.

Dubbed a terrorist group

Revolutionary Struggle first emerged in 2003 and was once considered Greece's most dangerous far-left organization. Both the European Union and the United States consider the group a terrorist organization.

In 2007 the group fired a rocket at the US embassy in Athens. No one was injured in the attack but the US responded by putting a bounty on the group.

They also attacked the residence of the German ambassador to Greece in December 2013.

In 2014, after a four-year absence, the group exploded a booby-trapped car outside a Bank of Greece office in downtown Athens as the country prepared a symbolic debt sale. Again, no one was injured in the attack.

Other violent acts allegedly carried out by the group include a bomb attack on the Athens Stock Exchange and several banks, as well as assassination attempts against police and a former police minister.

bik/kms (AFP, dpa)