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March 22, 1999 from LexisNexis
Excerpt from report by Spanish national radio on 22nd March
Presenter The death of the suspected ETA member Jose Luis Geresta Mugica, found dead on 20th March with a shot to the head; suicide is supected has in recent hours unleashed new episodes of street violence in the Basque Country.

In Bilbao, a homemade device exploded in the house of a Popular Party Spain's governing PP activist, causing minor damage.

Radicals also threw Molotov cocktails last night at a BBV Banco Bilbao Vizcaya office in San Sebastian.

In Villabona, several hooded individuals attacked a branch of the insurance company MAPFRE as well as an office of the Banco de Santander.

An ONCE charity selling lottery tickets kiosk was also set alight in the town of Hernani in Guipuzcoa Province .

Threatening graffiti also appeared during the night in the Guipuzcoan towns of San Sebastian, Hernani and Mondragon, describing Geresta's death as murder and making general threats .

The latest occurrence has been in Burlada in the region of Navarre partly Basque-speaking region in northern Spain - a new attack on a Socialist Party PSOE, Spanish Socialist Workers' Party social club. Juan Yeregi phonetic reports:

Reporter The fire was put out thanks to the rapid intervention of neighbours, and nobody was hurt. At the moment of the attack, a socialist activist was inside the building...

A bomb blast on Wednesday injured a conservative woman politician in Noain, south of Pamplona, in renewed violence in the Spanish Basque region, officials said.

The home-made bomb had been planted in a building in which the woman lives.

She was treated for light injuries.

Basque separatist sympathizers also attempted to blow up the car of a police officer in Irun, police said. A passer-by noticed the bomb underneath the car and it was rendered harmless by police.

Threatening slogans were also painted on walls in Pamplona. Wednesday's bombing follows several days of firebomb attacks in the region, which have caused no injuries.

Observers said the violence was the worst since the armed separatist group ETA declared a truce a year ago.

ETA supporters had been angered by the death of ETA member Esteban Nieto, 44, who had been released from prison in April because he was suffering from terminal cancer.

Interior Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja said that ETA was trying to frighten moderate political parties into considering the option of Basque independence which has been rejected by the government.



January 12, 2000

Spanish police Wednesday seized a car bomb of the armed Basque separatist group ETA, police said.

The private car containing 20 kilogrammes of explosives was discovered in Ochandiano close to Bilbao. ETA had planned to use the car bomb in a terrorist attack, police said.

Police had been searching for the car for 10 days after arresting five presumed ETA members.

ETA broke its 14-month ceasefire in December. Police have since foiled two large car bomb attacks, seizing 1.7 tons of explosives. dpa st

March 29, 2000

Presumed supporters of the armed Basque separatist group ETA attacked the house of a Spanish Socialist politician overnight, police said Wednesday.

The supporters hurled petrols bombs at the home of Luis Almansa, city councillor in Getxo near Bilbao in the Basque region.

The attack caused material damage but no injuries. Basque regional premier Juan Jose Ibarretxe stressed that his moderate nationalist party PNV would not back those who resorted to violence.

Meanwhile, a Socialist councillor in the Basque town of Basauri resigned Tuesday over what he perceived as a "threat to all democrats" from ETA, press reports said.

Inaki Gurtubay said that he had not received direct threats from ETA, but stressed the climate of fear in the northern region.

Herri Batasuna spokesman Arnaldo Otegi Tuesday defended ETA's threats against journalists as a part of the group's "armed struggle" for an independent Basque homeland, press reports said.

Presumed ETA activists Monday sent a parcel bomb to well-known radio journalist and ETA critic Carlos Herrera. He noticed that the cigar box was unusually heavy and foiled the murder attempt by alerting police.

Journalists were not "neutral agents" in the Basque conflict, Otegi said, and called on Spain to show its will to find a solution.

April 20, 2000
A FEMALE employee was killed and several people were injured in a suspected terrorist bomb attack on a McDonald's restaurant in western France yesterday.

The blast ripped through the building at Quevert, just outside Dinan in northern Brittany, at 10am, tearing bolted-down tables and chairs from the floor.

The force of the blast blew out windows and part of the roof according to rescue workers who said the bomb had been left at the entrance of the restaurant. The 28-year-old woman who died was standing in the doorway when the bomb exploded and was hurled into bushes nearby.

Firefighters said the restaurant in the town's Le Chene shopping mall had been "gutted" by the blast.

At almost the same time yesterday morning, a 50lb unexploded bomb was discovered outside a postal administration office in Rennes, 35 miles away, and dismantled by bomb disposal experts. While no-one has claimed responsibility for either device, investigators linked the restaurant blast in Dinan to previous bombings in the Brittany region that caused damage but no injuries.

The mayor of Dinan, Rene Benoit, told TF1 television three bullets were fired at the McDonald's a month ago, but no one claimed responsibility and no threats were received.

Suspicion for both bombs has fallen on a small separatist group, the Breton Revolutionary Army, and on the Basque terrorist group ETA.

Police said the three sticks of dynamite used in the bomb defused in Rennes were part of a stock of nearly eight tons of dynamite stolen in September in Plevin, in Brittany.

Police later recovered five tons of the explosives, and arrested nearly a dozen Breton and Basque separatists belonging to the Brittany Emgann (Combat) group and ETA.

April 22, 2000

In what authorities ascribed to backers of the underground Basque separatist group ETA, the house of a mayor of a town outside Bilbao was attacked by firebombs overnight Friday.

Police said Saturday that the flames were quickly put out by the fire department after the attack on the house of the Socialist mayor of the town of Trapaga.

There were no injuries.

The incident was one of a number in cities around the autonomous Basque region on Friday, including an explosive device going off at the home of a policeman in the regional capital Vitoria. That blast caused only material damage but no casualties.

May 7, 2000
A journalist with Spain's pro-government El Mundo newspaper was shot and killed in the Basque region of the country Sunday.

Reporter Jose Luis Lopez de la Calle, 63, was shot four times in the head and chest at close range by unidentified gunmen in front of his house in a suburb of San Sebastian, in northern Spain.

Police said there was no doubt that the killers, who fled the scene of the murder, had acted for the underground Basque organisation ETA.

Lopez is the fourth person to die in an ETA attack since the group called off its 14-month "ceasefire" in December 1999.

As a columnist for El Mundo, Lopez often wrote on terrorism.

He had received numerous death threats and ten weeks ago ETA supporters had tried to set fire to his home, but he refused to accept police protection.

The father of two was a co-founder of the so-called Ermua Peace Forum, which sought an end to terrorism in the Basque region.

During the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975), Lopez, a militant anti-fascist and trade union member, had spent five years in prison.

All political parties with the exception of the pro-ETA Herri Batasuna condemned Sunday's attack.

Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who is visiting Morocco, cancelled all his engagements for the remainder of the day.

In the past four weeks, letter bombs to popular state radio programme host Carlos Herrera and the deputy director of the conservative newspaper La Razon, Jesus Maria Zuloaga, had been defused before they could explode.

The ETA accuses the Spanish press of failing to report objectively on the conflict in the Basque region and of opposing independence efforts there.

The latest attack occurred just two weeks after the conservative Aznar was sworn in for a second term.

In his government programme, the prime minister had promised a tough and incessant fight against the ETA and rejected any dialogue until the separatist group gave up violence.

ETA members have killed almost 800 people in Spain since 1968.

July 26, 2000
Presumed activists of the underground Basque separatist group ETA Wednesday attempted to kill a conservative councillor in a bomb attack, officials said in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao.

A bomb had been attached to the underside of the car of Agustin Ramos Vallejo while it was left parked on the street in Durango near Bilbao.

But Vallejos bodyguard noticed the bomb, and police detonated it in a controlled explosion. The car of the councillor - whose three previous cars had already been set on fire by ETA supporters - was completely destroyed.

The attack came just two days after presumed ETA activists had detonated a car bomb near the home of conservative senator Pilar Aresti, who was not injured.

Politicians of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznars Popular Party (PP) have been among ETAs favourite targets since it stepped up its campaign of violence around two weeks ago.

July 27, 2000

Basque separatists Thursday blew up an automatic teller at a bank in the northern Spanish city of Vitoria, causing material damage but no injuries, police said.

Ten minutes before the blast, an anonymous caller claiming to speak for the Basque separatist group ETA warned police and a local newspaper that a bomb was about to explode.

The previous day, presumed ETA activists attempted to kill conservative councillor Agustin Ramos Vallejo in Durango near Bilbao. The councillor's bodyguard noticed a bomb attached to the underside of his car, which police detonated in a controlled explosion.

The attack was ETA's eighth in six weeks. Since ETA's talks with the government deadlocked and the group ended its 14-month ceasefire in December, ETA has staged a terror offensive that has left six people dead this year.

Interior Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja warned Wednesday that the conflict in the Basque region would be a "very long" one, and accused ETA of wanting to "demoralise society with systematic terror".



July 28, 2000

Presumed Basque separatists on Friday hurled petrol bombs at the house of a conservative councillor in the northern Spanish town of Durango, police said.

The building was damaged but no injuries were reported.

July 29, 2000

The former governor of the Spanish province of Guipuzcoa in the Basque region was shot dead in a cafe on Saturday, police said.

Juan Maria Jauregui, 49, died of his wounds after being shot several times in the head by two suspected Basque ETA terrorists in the town of Tolosa near San Sebastian.

Jaurequi, a leading member of the Socialist party, was civil governor in Guipuzcoa between 1993 and 1996. He was married with a daughter and is believed to have received repeated death threats from the ETA.

Shortly after the killing in Tolosa, a car bomb exploded in the neighbouring town of Villabona. Police believe the car may have belonged to the gunmen, who escaped.

No one was injured in the car blast.



August 8, 2000

Spain was plunged deeper Tuesday into a spiral of bloodshed and terror as presumed activists of the Basque separatist group ETA planted two car bombs, killing a business leader in the Basque town of Zumaya and injuring 11 people in Madrid.

The second bomb exploded in a northern zone of the capital about 6 p.m. Two people, including a security guard, sustained serious injuries. Two children were slightly injured.

An anonymous caller warned police of the attack, leaving them time to evacuate only a few people. The blast filled the area with thick smoke, and water was flowing on the street after a pipe burst.

The attack came just a few hours after a car bomb had exploded in Zumaya near San Sebastian, killing Jose Maria Korta, 52, the chairman of the local employers' association.

Korta had just parked his car in front of his company offices in an industrial area when the terrorists detonated a car bomb with remote control. Korta was hurled 10 metres from the site, and efforts to revive him failed.

The father of three had criticized ETA and called it an obstacle to the economic development of the Basque region. ETA had recently sent threatening letters to Basque businessmen to extort money from them.

The attacks were interpreted as a signal from ETA that it would not be deterred by the deaths of four of its activists the previous night in Bilbao.

The men were transporting 25 kilograms of dynamite Monday night in a car which blew up at a crossing, possibly while the terrorists were manipulating the explosives.

The blast broke the car in two and set it on fire.

"Body parts were falling on us," an eyewitness said. "I saw a rib, a hand and a heart," his trembling companion added.

Body fragments were found as far as 50 metres from the site. One of the victims was identified as Patxi Rementeria, 39, a senior ETA commander with responsibility for one of the group's most feared units.

The veteran ETA activist had been linked to 18 attacks, including the abduction and killing of local politician Miguel Angel Blanco, which prompted six million Spaniards to demonstrate against ETA in 1997.

One of the others was Antxon Sasiain Rodriguez, an ETA activist also wanted by police, forensic experts confirmed. The two others were too badly disfigured to be immediately identified.

Political leaders condemned the car bombings, warning ETA that it was destroying the Basque region with terrorism. King Juan Carlos called the killing of Korta "evil" and "cowardly", and Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar called on all Spaniards to unite in the fight against terrorism.

"We will not bend to terror," Aznar said from his vacation home in Oropesa on the Spanish Mediterranean coast.

"They can kill us, but they can never kill freedom in Spain and in the Basque region," he added.

Carlos Iturgaiz, the leader of Aznar's conservative Popular Party (PP) in the Basque region, said that the deaths of the four terrorists should make "democrats" feel "relief", because they could no longer "kill the innocent".

Several dozen ETA activists demonstrated in San Sebastian against the deaths of the four activists, carrying posters reading, "Long live ETA," and shouting death threats against local conservative leader Maria San Gil.

Arnaldo Otegi, one of the leaders of ETA's political wing Herri Batasuna, said rallies would be staged to pay tribute to the four "young patriots who fought for their country".

ETA has mounted one of the most vicious offensives in its history of three decades since it ended a 14-month ceasefire in December. The group has killed eight people and injured around 30 this year.

Another car bomb exploded in central Madrid in July, injuring around 10 people.

ETA's talks with the government ended after a first fruitless round last year. The government refuses to discuss ETA's key demand, a referendum on the independence of more than 2.5 million Basques in northern Spain and southern France.

ETA has killed about 800 people since 1968.



August 21, 2000

HUESCA, Spain -- A bomb ripped apart a Spanish Civil Guard car killing the two officers yesterday in an attack blamed on Basque separatists, the latest in a wave of deadly attacks.

The bomb, which was stuck to the vehicle with a magnet, went off just after 6 a.m. in the eastern town of of Sallent de Gallego near Spain's border with France.

A female agent died instantly, while the second agent, a man, died later in the hospital, police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but police blamed the separatist group ETA -- whose name is a Basque-language acronym for Basque Homeland and Freedom. The blast brought to 11 the number of deaths blamed on ETA since it ended a 14-month truce last December.

August 25, 2000

A homemade bomb went off in front of the home of a Bilbao police officer early Friday, the latest in a series of blasts attributed to Basque separatists.

No injuries were reported and damage was only slight in what was termed a largely symbolic gesture by supporters of the Basque separatist organisation ETA.

A day earlier, three explosive devices were detonated in the Basque region of Spain, causing material damage but no casualties as a string of terrorist attacks continued.

The bombings came in the wake of police raids against ETA this week which have led to the arrests of twelve suspected ETA activists.

Eleven people have been killed and 30 injured in the current wave of terrorism that has swept the province since ETA ended its 14-month ceasefire last December.

Security forces believe the separatist organisation built a network of informants throughout the Basque region ahead of its current campaign of violence. These informants were apparently average citizens who held down ordinary jobs but who gathered information on possible targets and passed it on to ETA via middlemen.

August 29, 2000

A former conservative local politician was shot dead Tuesday in the latest attack attributed by police to terrorists fighting for Basque autonomy.

The dead man, who once held a seat for the conservative ruling People's Party (PP) on the local council in the small town of Zumarraga south of San Sebastian, was aged 29.

Police said the attack carried the hallmarks of the Basque ETA terror group which has launched a fresh campaign of violence in recent months. ETA is demanding autonomy for Spain's 2.5 million Basques.

Several attackers shot the man in the head at close range. Police found around a dozen spent bullet cases at the scene of the killing. The ex-councillor, named as Manuel Indiano, was taken to hospital but died of his critical injuries.

Eleven people have been killed this year in ETA attacks and a further 30 people injured in the worst campaign of terrorism seen in Spain for a decade.



September 10, 2000

An explosion ripped through a closed discotheque in Spain's Basque region yesterday - the latest bombing blamed on the separatist group ETA in its escalating campaign for independence.

A caller claiming to represent ETA alerted the Red Cross minutes before the blast near the town of Deba, 25 miles west of the port city of San Sebastian.

There were no casualties, officials said. Two cleaning workers taken away at gunpoint by masked men were found unharmed in a nearby woods

This latest attack - in the province of Guipuzcoa, a separatist stronghold - appeared to be part of a new ETA strategy of targeting Basque business interests.

October 23, 2000

A prison officer in Spain's Basque country died when a bomb ripped through his car yesterday, in the latest in a wave of 16 killings this year blamed on the separatist group ETA.

The 44-year-old man, identified as Maximo Casado Carrera, worked at a jail where around 40 convicted members of ETA were housed.

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.

The attack occurred hours after tens of thousands of protesters marched through the Basque city Bilbao to call on ETA to give up its 32-year-old violent campaign for Basque independence that has killed about 800 people.

November 3, 2000

BARCELONA:  A car bomb exploded in central Barcelona early yesterday, injuring two.

It was the second attack in Spain this week linked to the Basque separatist group ETA.

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, police said.

The explosion occurred less than three days after a Supreme Court justice, his bodyguard and driver were killed in a Madrid car bombing -- the bloodiest attack blamed on ETA since it called off a ceasefire last December.

June 11, 2001

Bilbao - A large car-bomb, attributed by the police to the Basque terrorist group ETA, caused massive damage to an office and apartment block in the northern Spanish city of Logrono yesterday, Paddy Woodworth reports. Only two people were slightly injured, but many families were trapped in their homes for several hours because the blast shattered the staircase in the first five stories.



The attack is ETA's first since its statement last week, in which it refused to consider another ceasefire and threatened to continue attacks on journalists. More than 300 Basque media workers signed a statement at the weekend which concluded: "Our executioners should know that we will continue working in our country in defence of the right to life, liberty and pluralism."
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