Basque ETA gunmen shot a local politician's bodyguard in the head and exploded a car bomb yesterday in apparent retaliation for the jailing of the leaders of their political wing.
Violence erupted only hours before 23 leaders of the radical Basque separatist party, Herri Batasuna, were arrested to begin serving seven-year prison sentences imposed by Spain's Supreme Court for collaborating with the guerrillas.
In Bilbao, eight politicians who had refused to voluntarily turn themselves in were dragged by masked policemen to waiting vans. Several raised their fists in defiance while about 200 supporters shouted "Freedom for the Basque country".
Police said the victim of the latest ETA attack, Mr Jose Maria Lobato, a 28-year-old bodyguard for a city councillor from Spain's ruling Popular Party, was in serious condition after being shot in the head in San Sebastian.
Doctors said Mr Lobato was out of danger but could lose sight in one eye. He was shot when he surprised two gunmen who were apparently preparing an assassination attempt against the woman he protects, San Sebastian councillor Ms Elena Azpiroz, state television reported.
Only minutes after the shooting, a white Ford Escort exploded in the same section of the city near a school and a retirement home. Police believe the gunmen blew up the car to destroy any evidence. No injuries were reported.
Authorities said the attacks in San Sebastian - capital of Guipuzcoa, the region's most fiercely nationalist province - were clearly the work of ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom). It has killed more than 800 people in a 29-year violent struggle for an independent Basque state.
The shooting came in the tense lead-up to the arrests of the Herri Batasuna leaders, who were sentenced on Monday to seven-year jail terms for showing an ETA video featuring armed guerrillas in an election broadcast last year.
"We want to condemn this attack," said a government spokesman, Mr Miguel Angel Rodriguez. "This is how ETA acts. This is how terrorists act, how terrorists kill."
The government had voiced fears that the jailing of the radical politicians, whose party commands 15 per cent support among Basque voters, could bring a violent backlash by ETA.
A Herri Batasuna spokesman warned earlier this week of "serious direct consequences".
ETA's most notorious assassination this year was of another low-ranking Popular Party official, 29-year-old Basque town councillor Miguel Angel Blanco. His kidnapping and murder in July brought millions into the streets in protest.