Arson attacks

The most high-profile building to be targeted in the attacks was the office of Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. Early on Friday morning, assailants threw balls containing blue, yellow and red paint at the office wing, defacing about 10 square meters of the exterior.

Three petrol bombs were thrown at the heavily guarded Berlin office of the German Federal Crime Office (BKA), but guards put out the flames. While fleeing, assailants threw small metal devices with sharp points that puncture car tires on the road to prevent police from launching a chase.

There were also unspecified attacks on two members of the German parliament. Letters were left there accusing them of being warmongers.

Hours before the attacks, the German government passed a bill to extend the country's military mandate in Afghanistan by one year. The around 4,500 Bundeswehr forces will now serve in the NATO force in Afghanistan until the end of 2010.

The German government will decide on whether to increase troop levels after an international Afghanistan conference in London on January 28.

The timing and nature of the incidents has led police to believe that anti-war leftists carried out the attacks.

Arson attacks on other buildings

In Hamburg, around 300 kilometers west of Berlin, assailants launched several arson attacks, including one on a police station.

Just before midnight, a group of 10 masked assailants torched a police vehicle and then lured police officers outside by pretending to call for help, police spokesman Ralf Meyer told radio broadcaster NDR 90,3.

"Ten disguised assailants waited for the police to come out of the station, and then bombarded them with stones," he said.

At the same time, other masked persons attempted to lock the entrance of the building. No one was injured but several windows were broken during the attack.

In another Hamburg district, assailants set fire to two vehicles with official number plates.

Police in Hamburg and Berlin both blame leftist extremists for the attacks, although it's unclear whether they are linked. While officially the incidents are not connected, NDR 90,3 reports that investigators in both cities have been comparing the cases.

"This is an extremist attack on our democracy," said Christoph Ahlhaus, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) spokesman for interior affairs in Hamburg.

"These are attacks unlike we have ever had in Hamburg or in Germany," said Olaf Scholz, Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD)

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Editor: Kyle James