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France arrests head of terrorist group
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Laettners Legacy Offline
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BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - Police arrested the suspected political leader of the Basque guerrilla group ETA, detained 20 other people and seized weapons in a swoop on the outlawed group in France and Spain on Sunday, officials said.

Mikel Albisu Iriarte, alias "Mikel Antza," said by Spanish authorities to have been ETA's political chief since 1993, was arrested with another suspected ETA veteran, Soledad Iparraguirre, alias "Anboto," at Salies de Bearn in southwestern France, according to French police sources.

Iparraguirre, accused of involvement in at least 14 murders, is the highest-ranking woman in ETA, the Spanish Interior Ministry said in a statement.

A total of 20 people suspected of links to ETA were detained in France, where dozens of anti-terrorist and local police took part in a series of raids in a search for ETA bases.

Spanish police also arrested a truck driver in the central city of Burgos who was suspected of involvement in attacks last week in which bombs were attached to electricity pylons in Spain.

"The operation is very important. Seven homes have been searched (in southwestern France) and important documents, weapons and explosives have been seized," Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said in Zaragoza.

ETA, classed as a terrorist group by the European Union (news - web sites) and the United States, has killed more than 800 people since 1968 to press its demand for a Basque state carved out of northern Spain and southwestern France.

ETA has not carried out a fatal attack for more than a year. But it resumed planting small bombs in August, first targeting tourist resorts and then blowing up electricity pylons on lines connecting France and Spain.

BLOW TO ETA

The arrests were hailed in Spain as an important blow to ETA, already reported to be severely weakened following hundreds of arrests by French and Spanish police in recent years.

"The blow struck against the terrorist organization today is an important step forward on the road to peace and shows that the end and the defeat of ETA is possible...," Spain's ruling Socialist party said in a statement.

Alonso hailed French cooperation in fighting ETA and said he had discussed Sunday's operation with French counterpart Dominique de Villepin.

The Spanish Interior Ministry said Iparraguirre was in charge of collecting and distributing the so-called "revolutionary tax," a form of extortion imposed by ETA on some Basque firms and businessmen.

Albisu, who like Iparraguirre was born in 1961, organized a prison breakout by two ETA members in 1985, the ministry said.

Albisu hit the headlines in Spain in January when media reports said he was one of the ETA leaders who held a meeting with a leftist Catalan nationalist politician, Josep-Lluis Carod-Rovira. Carod was forced to resign as number two official in the Catalan government after the meeting came to light.

Spain's Socialist government -- elected three days after the March 11 Madrid train bombings that the previous conservative government initially blamed wrongly on ETA -- has maintained a hard line against the group.

<a href='http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041003/wl_nm/france_eta_suspects_dc_3' target='_blank'>http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/n...a_suspects_dc_3</a>
10-03-2004 03:16 PM
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Laettners Legacy Offline
Heisman
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Posts: 8,863
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I Root For: Duke Blue Devil
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Post: #2
 
here is a link to what the ETA is if you care

<a href='http://library.nps.navy.mil/home/tgp/eta.htm' target='_blank'>http://library.nps.navy.mil/home/tgp/eta.htm</a>
10-03-2004 03:17 PM
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