Three policeman injured in Basque region
Three Spanish policemen were injured today when a booby trapped sign for a Basque separatist party exploded as they began to inspect it.
The blast came less than a day after two suspected members of the armed Basque terror group Eta died in what was thought to be an ‘own goal’ blast in their explosives-laden car in Bilbao.
The latest bomb was hidden behind a sign along a road leading to the town of Berastegui at the southeast tip of the Basque region.
The sign mentioned Batasuna, the political party considered Eta’s political wing.
A police patrol stopped to examine the sign and it exploded, injuring three members of the Civil Guard, Spain’s paramilitary police force. Two of them were in serious condition.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but suspicion immediately fell on Eta.
Two Basque police were injured in November in a similar attack. They were about to pull down a banner urging Eta to kill police when the sign exploded, injuring both of them.
Today’s attack came less than a day after two suspected members of ETA died when their explosives-laden car detonated in Bilbao.
Basque Interior Minister Javier Balza announced the new blast at a press conference initially called to discuss the explosion that occurred shortly before midnight on Monday.
He said one of Monday’s suspected Eta members had been identified from a photo found in the remains of the car but the other would be very hard to identify because both bodies were blown to pieces.
Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said the suspected Eta members killed in Bilbao had apparently been planning an attack for today. He said they had been carrying about 33 pounds of explosives in a knapsack.
