ETA Blamed For Separate Bomb Attacks in Spain
The Basque separatist terror group ETA has been blamed for two separate bombings in Spain in the last 48 hours. If this is true, it is especially startling considering that they have suffered a number of major setbacks in the last few years. Three of their military commanders were arrested by Spanish authorities in an eight month period during 2008, inflicting a major blow on the organization. ETA, which is pronounced "etta," is a leftist group that conducts terrorist attacks to win independence for a Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France. ETA stands for Euskadi ta Askatasuna, which means “Basque Fatherland and Liberty” in the Basque language.
Steve Kingstone, BBC News Madrid correspondent, wrote"This attack is a sobering reminder of ETA's potency, to politicians and commentators who had previously portrayed the group as weakened following a series of high-profile arrests. Those arrests certainly dented ETA's leadership structure, but this attack demonstrates that other militants are willing to step into the shoes of those now in jail. And the quantity of explosives used - almost 300kg, according to Spanish reports - makes clear that the group still has the potential to inflict violence on a large scale. The catalyst for this bombing was the exclusion of separatist parties from regional elections in March. ETA branded the vote "undemocratic," and described members of the resulting Socialist administration as a "priority target." The Socialists ended almost three decades of rule by the Basque Nationalist Party, and have promised renewed vigour in tackling the militants."
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