Former Greek prime minister recovering from bombing

Greek former Prime Minister Lucas Papademos was recuperating well Friday from injuries suffered when a parcel bomb exploded inside his car in central Athens, health officials said.

Two of Papademos' aides were also lightly injured in Thursday's attack.

Hospital officials said Papademos will remain in intensive care as a precaution, but they said there is no cause for concern for his survival.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the bombing. But it bears the hallmarks of a nihilist anarchist group, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, which has staged several similar attacks in the past.

Papademos, 69, is being treated for wounds in his right thigh and upper body. He served as prime minister for six months in 2011-2012 and is a former deputy governor of the European Central Bank.

Germany condemned the attack in the strongest terms Friday.

"We ... wish Lucas Papademos all the best," German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said in Berlin, adding that the government was "dismayed" by the attack.

"Whatever motivates these people, this kind of attack — politically motivated terrorism — is completely unacceptable," Schaefer said.

Earlier this year, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire posted bombs to the German Finance Ministry and the Paris office of the International Monetary Fund, where a small explosion injured one person.

The group has also claimed responsibility for a spate of parcel bombings in 2010 targeting embassies in Athens and the offices of European leaders abroad. Most of the devices were intercepted or destroyed by police, but one device injured a parcel company employee in Greece.

More than a dozen people have been convicted of group membership and jailed.