Basque terror suspects captured in police raid

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish police arrested four suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA on Tuesday, just a week after group's alleged new military chief and five other ETA suspects were detained, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

In the latest raids, two men and two women were detained in the northern Basque city of San Sebastian and the nearby town of Pasajes de San Pedro, and police searched three homes, seizing computer information, the ministry said.

The four, aged 23 to 31, are suspected of leading a double life, secretly scouting out targets for future ETA attacks while otherwise staying out of trouble and working at normal jobs, CNN partner network CNN+ reported, citing police sources.

Early last week, six suspected ETA members were arrested in France and Spain, Spain's Interior Ministry said.

The prime suspect was ETA's alleged new military chief, Aitzol Iriondo Yarza, 30, wanted as head of ETA commandos who carried out attacks. His arrest on December 8 in the southern French village of Gerde came just three weeks after his alleged predecessor was captured.

"The forceful police action against ETA, along with all the instruments of the state, will continue until this disgrace is ended," Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on December 9.

The suspected overall leader of ETA -- heading both the military and policy-making, or political, wings -- was arrested November 17, also in southern France, Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said last month.

That man, Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu, 35, alias "Txeroki," is wanted in connection with numerous ETA fatal attacks.

It is the third time this year that police have detained the suspected top ETA leader, and Rubalcaba said it's an indication that investigators are getting better at shortening each ETA chief's hold on power.

Last May, also in France, police arrested Francisco Javier Lopez Pena, alias "Thierry," suspected of being ETA's top leader at the time.

The arrests of the four ETA suspects on Tuesday started from clues investigators gleaned from documentation seized from Thierry last May, the ministry statement said.

ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its long fight for Basque independence. The group is listed as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States and has long used France as a base to prepare for attacks in Spain.

There are about 600 ETA convicts or suspects in Spanish jails and 150 in French jails, authorities in the two countries have told CNN.

CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman contributed to this report.

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