ETA attack team arrested in Spain-media

Tue Jul 22, 2008 4:01am EDT

(Increases number of those arrested, adds comment, details)

By Teresa Larraz

MADRID, July 22 (Reuters) - Spanish police arrested eight suspected ETA members in dawn raids that dismantled the Basque separatists' most active guerrilla unit, media reported on Tuesday.

Among those captured was Arkaitz Goikoetxea, alleged leader of the "Vizcaya cell", blamed for killing 3 police officers and a Socialist councillor after the Basque guerrillas called off a ceasefire in June 2007, Spanish media said.

"This is a special morning because today we feel a little be more free because several terrorists have been arrested," said Rodolfo Ares, a leader of the Basque Socialist Party.

The Interior Ministry declined to confirm the reports but said Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba would make a statement on an anti-terrorism operation at 1100 GMT.

Police raided towns and villages in the Vizcaya region near Bilbao in the early hours of Tuesday.

The arrests follow the explosion of four bombs in Cantabrian holiday resorts in northern Spain on Sunday that marked the beginning of ETA's traditional summer campaign against the Spanish tourist infrastructure.

Spain's Socialist government says ETA, considered a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States, has been severely weakened by a string of high profile arrests.

That has not stopped ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna or Basque Country and Freedom) staging more than a dozen attacks this year, including shooting former Socialist councillor Isaias Carrasco two days before the March election.

It also bombed a Civil Guard barracks in Legutiano killing civil guard officer Juan Manuel Pinuel-Villalon on May 14.

ETA declared a ceasefire in March 2006, raising hopes for an end to the group's four-decade campaign for an independent Basque state that has killed over 800 people in shootings and bombings.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero broke off peace talks after the group killed two Ecuadorians in an attack on Madrid airport in December 2006.

The group officially terminated its ceasefire in June last year. (Editing by Matthew Jones)



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