France holds suspected ETA chief
BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) -- French anti-terrorist police arrested a man they believe is the top military commander of the armed Basque separatist group ETA on Tuesday, dealing a new blow to Western Europe's most active guerrilla force.
In the second such high-profile swoop in a week, Bordeaux detectives and officers from the national anti-terror squad arrested the man and three other ETA suspects in a dawn raid in the small village of Lons, west of the southwestern French town of Pau.
Documents, weapons and a car were later confiscated.
French police described Gorka Palacios Alday, 29, as very important and the armed group's "number one" following the recapture last Thursday of Ibon Fernandez Iradi, known as "Susper," almost a year after his escape from custody in France.
The three other suspects were said to be of medium importance. A Spanish Interior Ministry spokesman in Madrid confirmed "several very important ETA arrests in France," but gave no details.
Spanish news agencies said Palacios was wanted by police for a series of bombings. Local Spanish media said he was on ETA's "executive committee."
Police in Spain named Palacios in 2000 as the suspected gunman who shot dead a 50-year-old city councillor in front of his wife and daughter.
ETA has killed nearly 850 people since 1968 in a bloody campaign for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France. It is listed as a terrorist organisation by Spain, the United States and the European Union.
In a note released on Sunday, ETA vowed to continue its attacks and said peace would not return to the northern Spanish region until the departure of "occupation forces" including the Basque region's autonomous police force, the Ertzaintza.
The group said it carried out a bombing which destroyed 11 lorries in October, and an attack on an army barracks in northern Spain when a device failed to explode.
In recent years, close cooperation between French and Spanish police has led to scores of arrests of senior ETA suspects.
Prior to Tuesday's arrests, 175 suspected ETA members or collaborators had been detained this year.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who survived an ETA attack while opposition leader in 1995, has made the fight against the group his top priority.
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