SPAIN: The Basque separatist group ETA set off five bombs at petrol stations around Madrid yesterday, putting a stranglehold on the city at the start of a long holiday weekend.
Two police officers were slightly wounded, officials said.
The attacks marked a significant return to violence after months of relative inactivity for ETA, which has been severely weakened by a police crackdown. So far this year, more than 100 suspected members of the group have been detained.
They blasts also dashed hopes of a Christmas truce after the guerrillas had offered to enter talks with Spain - an offer which was roundly rejected by the mainstream political parties.
"They want to send a message of 'Here we are. We wanted to talk'," said Mr Gorka Knorr, a senior Basque politician.
The blasts forced police to seal off major highways leading from the capital amid a massive exodus for the long holiday weekend. Highways were choked with traffic and bomb squads and emergency services stood by in case they were needed.
"Five small artefacts have exploded. There is hardly any material damage," an Interior Ministry spokeswoman said.
But witnesses were impressed by the force of the blasts. "I heard a very loud noise and saw smoke . . . If that's a small explosion, my God," a woman who had been washing her car at one of the petrol stations which was targeted told Telemadrid television.
Casualties from the blasts were limited, as the petrol stations had been evacuated in time. ETA issued a warning about the devices in a telephone call to the Basque newspaper Gara, a method which the group regularly uses to announce impending attacks. - (Reuters)
Paddy Woodworth adds: ETA's bombings in Madrid last night are an extension of a new and rather bizarre strategy which the group developed last summer, when militants exploded small bombs over a 10-day period in a series of northern Spanish seaside towns.
Those bombings appeared to be sending a message to the new Socialist Party government, elected after the Islamist bombings in Madrid on March 11th, that the group was resisting pressure from its own supporters to go on ceasefire and remained a force to be reckoned with.
However, the small scale of the bombs, and the unusual care taken to avoid serious casualties or even serious damage, also suggested that ETA was well aware that it no longer had either the political support or the military muscle to launch a full-scale new terrorist campaign this year.
Support for ETA has drained away in its Basque heartlands since it ended its ceasefire. It lost more than half its voters in the most recent Basque election and senior leaders of its political wing, Batasuna, since made illegal, privately argued for a new ceasefire.
Despite the shockwaves from the September 11th attacks in the US in 2001, the group initially continued a bloody campaign, but a combination of intense political and police pressure weakened it to a point where it has failed to carry out any killings for almost two years.
By striking in Madrid, and causing traffic chaos, the group seems to be making another gesture to the new government, indicating that it "has not gone away, you know".
But while a small number of determined members may be able to cause periodic mayhem - and further attacks with casualties cannot be ruled out - it does seem that the organisation is in a process of decomposition which may be irreversible.
No Spanish government is likely to negotiate anything significant with ETA now beyond remission of sentences for prisoners in the event of a total ceasefire.