Rash of café and restaurant firebombings continues to go unsolved in Montreal

Rash of café and restaurant firebombings continues to go unsolved in Montreal, as police try to determine why they have been targeted over the past four weeks. Early Tuesday morning, a bar in Riviere-de-Prairies was hit just before 4 a.m. local time. That firebombing followed two others that occurred Monday morning, including an attack on a Greek-owned restaurant that was hit for the second time in just over a week.
No one has been injured during the nine attacks that have occurred since last month. They have all taken place overnight and involved objects -- Molotov cocktails -- that were thrown through a window. All but one of the attacks have been against Italian-owned establishments, the exception being the Greek restaurant that was attacked Monday. CTV Montreal's Stephane Giroux said that while police aren't sure why the restaurants have been targeted, they are probing the possibility that it could be a street gang-related problem.
"The only theory police have right now is that we could be stuck in the middle of a turf war between various street gangs which are trying to muscle their way into some part of Montreal, incidentally dominated by a lot of Italian-owned businesses," Giroux told CTV News Channel on Tuesday afternoon.
The businesses that have been hit are not linked to any known criminal activity. But with many underworld and Hells Angels members arrested in recent months, it is possible that someone could be trying to take advantage of a "power vacuum," Giroux said. "But why are they attacking those cafes, usually known to be really quiet? Big mystery," he said.