SPAIN: 

Politician Shot Dead

Former Health Minister Ernest Lluch, well known in Spain for his reforms of the public health service in the early 1980s, was shot and killed on Tuesday night. Police almost immediately blamed the Basque separatist group ETA for the murder. The 63-year-old Lluch served in the government of former Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez. He was shot twice in the back of the head in his garage.

As was reported on Tuesday, suspected members of ETA fired grenades at a Spanish Civil Guard police barracks in the Basque region, slightly wounding one police officer. Police later found a booby-trap bomb planted in a car parked near the Civil Guard post in the Basque town of Irun on the Spanish-French border. The device was safely detonated in a controlled explosion.

21 Nov 2000

SPAIN: 

Police Officer Wounded In Grenade Attack

A police spokesman said that a police officer was slightly wounded in a hit-and-run grenade attack on a police station in the northern town of Irun on Tuesday. Officials blamed the attack on Basque separatists. The spokesman said unknown attackers launched two grenades just after 09:00 hours local time but only one exploded, injuring a member of Spain's Civil Guard in Irun, a Basque city on Spain's northern coast near the border with France.

State news agency Efe said police found several grenade-launching tubes near the station after the attackers fled. Police said that the attack was likely the work of Basque separatists. Earlier this month, ten policemen were injured when a booby-trapped cache of grenade launchers exploded near a police station in the city of San Sebastian, near Irun. ETA claimed responsibility.

20 Nov 2000

SPAIN: In a statement published on Sunday by two pro-independence Basque newspapers, the Basque separatist group ETA claimed responsibility for killing ten people since the end of July. ETA also said it was behind 17 bombing and shooting attacks over that period. ETA often admits to its attacks in statements several weeks later. In the statement, published in Gara and Egunkaria, ETA criticized the Spanish and French governments, Basque political parties, magistrates, civil servants, journalists and intellectuals for assisting in what it calls the repression and suffering of the Basque people.

18 Nov 2000

SPAIN: 

Policeman Killed, Marxist Group Suspected

A police officer was shot and killed in a Madrid suburb on Friday and officials said the killing looked like the work of the outlawed Marxist group GRAPO, whose suspected leaders were arrested in France last week. 

Police at the scene found two spent shell casings similar to others previously used by the First of October Anti Fascist Resistance Group, a shadowy Marxist guerrilla group known as GRAPO. The victim was identified as 28-year-old Francisco Sanz. The policeman was killed by a shot to the neck. 

A police spokesman said: "We don't know exactly what happened, but one of the possibilities is that Sanz suspected the individuals and approached them. What's clear is that he's was shot in the neck." Sanz's badge and service revolver were reported stolen, also GRAPO hallmarks. 

15 Nov 2000

FRANCE: 

ETA Member Escapes Extradition Threat...

Police said on Monday that a convicted member of the Basque separatist group ETA tied bedsheets together to form a makeshift rope and slide to freedom through the window of a hotel where French police had him under 24-hour watch. Felix Alberto Lopez de Lacalle Gauna managed to escape during the night from the hotel where he had been under  house arrest pending the outcome of a court battle against extradition to Spain. The man, a suspected former number two in the ETA group, completed a seven-year jail sentence for terrorist activity last July. Since then he has fought expulsion to Spain and was staying at a hotel in the central Creuse region of France, where he was not supposed to leave without notifying the police. 

10 Nov 2000

SPAIN:

Journalists Barely Escape Bomb Attack

Two journalists managed to survive an attempted bombing on Friday in the Basque city of San Sebastian when an IED in a flower pot near their front door failed to explode. Police immediately blamed the Basque separatist group ETA. The journalists were Aurora Intxausti of El Pais, Spain's largest newspaper, and her husband Juan Palomo, of the Antena 3 television station. 

The attacker connected the detonator to the doorknob of the couple's apartment with a strand of wire. But Palomo opened the door so forcefully it ripped the detonator away from the main charge. The resulting sparks and firecracker-like bang of the detonator failed to injure any of the three people in the doorway - Palomo, Intxausti and their 18-month-old son. 

Authorities said the 4.5-pound main charge, packed with screws and nails meant as shrapnel, would have killed both journalists and their son. ETA is frequently accused of targeting journalists who speak out against the group. 

Hours before the attempt, police arrested four suspected ETA members in the nearby city of Bilbao, dismantling a terrorist cell apparently created to replace one that was blown up by accident. Police also searched four apartments and a house in Bilbao, seizing three handguns, 180 pounds of dynamite, five anti-tank grenades, electronic equipment and fake car license plates.

ERRI analysts said early this morning that it appears the current ETA bombing campaign appears to be escalating and that it is likely that more bombs can be expected in coming days.  EmergencyNet News is working on a chronology of recent bomb attacks involving the ETA and will be posting it to this website in the near future.

SPAIN:

ETA Blamed In Barcelona Car Bombing

In the second attack in Spain this week linked to the Basque separatist group ETA, two people were wounded by a car bomb that exploded in central Barcelona early on Thursday. Callers claiming to represent ETA alerted authorities to the bomb 15 minutes before the blast, which shattered windows in the area and littered the street with debris.

The explosion in Spain's second-largest city came less than three days after a Supreme Court justice, his bodyguard and driver were killed by a car bomb in Madrid. The latest bombing took place at about 0100 hours local time (0000 GMT) in Barcelona's Clara Campoamor public gardens, not far from where Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was due to attend an award ceremony later on Thursday. A security guard and a street cleaner were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.

A police spokesman said that there were four warning calls in the name of ETA before the bomb went off. The calls were made to the fire department, two separate police forces and a local newspaper. Interior Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja warned that ETA was intensifying its terror campaign in an attempt to undermine public support for the center-right government's hard-line stance against Basque separatism.

30 Oct 2000

SPAIN:

Three Dead, 35 Wounded In Madrid Car Bombing

In what would be ETA's bloodiest attack since it ended a truce last year, a car bomb blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA killed a Spanish Supreme Court judge, his driver and his bodyguard on Monday. The explosion ripped through the Arturo Soria district of Madrid during the morning rush hour, setting fire to a bus, destroying dozens of cars and ripping down the facades of buildings.

Among the dead was Judge Jose Francisco Querol, a 69-year-old magistrate responsible for military hearings at the Supreme Court. The judge, his driver and bodyguard burned to death in their car. At least one person, the driver of the municipal bus that was stopped near the scene of the blast, was seriously injured. More than 30 others were also reported hurt. The explosion occurred near Arturo Soria Avenue, one of Madrid's busiest streets.

The bombing bore all the hallmarks of a wave of attacks by ETA, already linked to 16 previous killings since ending a 14-month cease-fire last December, and state radio was quick to accuse the terrorist group once more. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday's blast, but ETA usually waits weeks or months before doing so.

22 Oct 2000

SPAIN:

Prison Officer Killed By Bomb

Officials said that a bomb ripped through a car on Sunday in Spain's Basque country, killing a prison officer. The bombing appeared to be another attack by the separatist group ETA. The 44-year-old victim worked at a jail where around 40 convicted members of ETA are held.

Police said the bomb went off as he got into his car in a garage at his home in the Basque regional capital of Vitoria. Sunday's attack came just hours after tens of thousands of protesters marched through the Basque port city of Bilbao to call on ETA to give up its 32-year-old campaign of violence, in which about 800 people have been killed.

The victim had been heading for work at the Nanclares de Oca prison, about 12 miles from Vitoria. ETA has either claimed responsibility or been blamed for 15 previous killings in Spain this year since calling off a 14-month cease-fire last December. The group often waits weeks or even months before admitting responsibility for its actions.

20 Oct 2000

SPAIN:

Bombing Incidents Reported

One person was slightly wounded and minimal damage was  reported when a small bomb exploded on Thursday outside a branch office of La Caixa bank in Barcelona. No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing. The First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Group (GRAPO), a Marxist organization, has carried out similar small-scale bombings in the past.

In another bombing incident, police EOD experts detonated a package bomb that had arrived at the offices of an editor at a conservative Madrid daily newspaper. The package, addressed by name, contained a small bomb packed into a videotape. The 3.5 ounce bomb was detected during the newspaper offices' routine X-ray mail check. Police suspect an obscure group called "The Anarchists," but there has been no claim of responsibility thus far.

08 Oct 2000

SPAIN:

Suspected ETA Attacks Foiled

A government spokesperson said on Sunday that a second attempted bomb attack on Spanish army officers within a few hours was foiled overnight when explosives were found in a car in the southern city of Seville. The Basque separatist group ETA -- which has been linked to 13 killings this year -- was suspected in the two cases, both in the Seville region.

In one of the incidents, an army officer late on Saturday noticed a door of his vehicle had been forced open and spotted wiring under the driver's seat. He called police, who found a bomb and carried out a controlled explosion. The officer had probably already driven the car with the explosives underneath his seat. Local police officials told state radio they believed ETA had set up an operational cell in Seville.

Earlier on Saturday, another army officer had driven about 75 miles from Seville to the coast with explosives stuffed under a front seat. He heard a strange noise as he pulled into his destination and then discovered the bomb. Police blew up the device, which was reported to weigh about two pounds (1kg).

01 Oct 2000

SPAIN:

Bomb Causes Minor Damage To Madrid Office

Police said an explosion caused minor damage and no injuries at an office of the ruling Popular Party in Madrid. A leftist group was blamed for the bomb that went off on Saturday. A police spokesman said a woman called police after the explosion to say GRAPO, a group with apparent anarchist leanings, planted the bomb in the office in Madrid's Hortaleza neighborhood. Nobody was in the building at the time of the explosion.

The bomb, with an estimated 3.3 pounds of explosive material, was left in the office doorway and a witness told police he saw two men running from the scene shortly before the blast. The pre-dawn explosion was the fifth in three days blamed on GRAPO.

On Friday, two men and a woman reportedly planted a bomb in a trash bin in the Barcelona office of El Mundo, one of Spain's leading newspapers. The building was evacuated. When the device exploded, it injured two police officers who had rushed to the scene.

GRAPO has never publicly stated clearly its political aims although it is believed to go after what it considers to be right-wing and capitalist targets. Its name -- October First Anti-fascist Resistance Group -- comes from October 1, 1975, the date of the group's first major attack in which it killed four policemen in reprisal for the execution of two suspected Basque separatists and three anarchists belonging to FRAP, a predecessor group of GRAPO.