Basque ETA leader arrested in France

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- The suspected leader of the Basque separatist group ETA was arrested late Tuesday in southern France in an operation that has also netted five other suspects, Spain's Interior Minister said Wednesday

The key Spanish suspect, Francisco Javier Lopez Pena, alias "Thierry," is "in all probability the one who has the most political and military weight in the ETA terrorist group," Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said at a hastily arranged news conference in Dakar, Senegal.

"This is not just another operation," Rubalcaba added, as he cut short his official tour of several African nations to return to Madrid.

In a joint French-Spanish police operation, four Spanish suspects, including Lopez Penz, were arrested late Tuesday at an apartment in Bordeaux, Rubalcaba said.

On Wednesday, a fifth Spanish suspect was arrested in Spain, and later, a French suspect was detained in France, Rubalcaba said. The French suspect is believed to have rented the apartment to four of the others.

Police found four pistols and abundant documentation at the apartment where the four "important leaders of ETA" were arrested, Rubalcaba said.

The others arrested at the apartment were identified as Ainhoa Ozaeta Mendiondo, Igor Suberbiola and Jon Salaberria, CNN partner station CNN Plus reported.

French plainclothes police officers, wearing dark hoods to conceal their identities, escorted the suspects back to the apartment on Wednesday to be present during a more thorough search of the premises.

CNN Plus images showed one of the suspects, wearing a yellow t-shirt and his head covered by a white hood. He shouted, "long live ETA," in the Basque language as he was escorted by police past a throng of reporters waiting at the entrance to the apartment in central Bordeaux.

Analysts say police consider Lopez Pena to have been among ETA "hard-liners" who wanted to come out fighting from ETA's unilateral cease-fire declared in March 2006.

That cease-fire, declared at a time when ETA had been on the defensive after a string of arrests, raised hopes for an end to nearly 40 years of ETA violence blamed for more than 800 deaths and thousands of injuries.

An ETA bomb at Madrid's airport in December 2006 -- during the cease-fire -- killed two men and caused heavy damage. Police suspect that Lopez Pena, 49, had a hand in that attack.

After the airport bombing, the government considered the fledging peace process over, but ETA did not officially end its cease-fire until June 2007.

Since then authorities have blamed ETA for more four deaths, including a Civil Guard officer killed last week in northern Spain when a pre-dawn car bomb blew apart a Civil Guards barracks, also injuring four other officers.

ETA has traditionally used southern France, just north of Spain's Basque region, as a rear-guard logistics base. But in recent years, increased French and Spanish police cooperation has made it more difficult for ETA operatives in France.

There are about 500 ETA convicts or suspects in Spanish jails and more than 100 more in French jails, authorities have told CNN.

The last time police arrested the suspected top ETA leaders was in 2004, but after that, the group managed to rebuild its ranks.

Analysts said the latest arrests are very important, but do not mean that an end to the violence is certain.

Various other ETA leaders are at large and the group has a number of operatives willing to carry out attacks, according to analysts.

All About Spain • ETA Separatist Group • Basque Country