SPAIN: A Civil Guard corporal died and three others were injured, one of them critically, yesterday in a bomb attack in the town of Leitza, on the border between Navarra and Guipuzcoa. It was the fifth terrorist attack, or attempted attack, since the banning of Batasuna, ETA's political front, a month ago.
The civil guards were preparing to remove a pro-ETA poster which had been left on the roadside when a 15 kilo device exploded as they approached it. Police are investigating whether the bomb was detonated by remote control or whether it had a trip mechanism.
Reports of a shooting incident in Leitza shortly after the attack have been denied by officials.
Corp Juan Carlos Beiro's death brings to four the number of people killed by ETA in 25 attacks so far this year. It comes only 12 hours after two suspected ETA militants died in Bilbao when a bomb exploded in their car as they were driving through the city shortly before midnight. In the wreckage police found a remote control detonating device, the remains of at least one Astra pistol, forged identity papers and false car licence plates. Mr Xabier Balsa, the man responsible for home affairs in the Basque government, said it was believed that the dynamite in the car was in poor condition making it unreliable.
Mr Enrique Villar, the government representative in the Basque Country, visited the site shortly after the explosion. He had no doubt that the victims were terrorists. "The death of anyone, even an etarra, is regrettable. But many of us will sleep more peacefully in our beds tonight," he said.
The force of the blast was so strong that wreckage and remains of the victims were scattered over a 100 metre area. The bodies were so badly mutilated that at first it was not even clear how many people were involved, or even the model of the car. It is unlikely that one of the men will ever be identified from his remains, but the other was named as 22-year-old Odei Galarraga identified by a photograph on a forged identity card found in the wreckage. He is alleged to have been responsible for at least two killings.
Galarraga was the partner of Olaia Castresana, the last ETA terrorist killed by her own bomb, who died in a blast in an apartment near Alicante in July last year. A year earlier, four other etarras died in Bilbao in an explosion in a car near the spot where the two men died yesterday. Thirty-five more ETA militants have been killed by their own bombs since the organisation began its terrorist operations in 1969.
Mr José María Aznar, the Spanish prime minister echoed the police opinion that the men were preparing to carry out a terrorist attack when the bomb exploded. "They were going to kill innocent citizens. No one goes on their holiday in a car packed with 20 kilos of explosives," he said.