The fight against Basque terrorism suffered a major blow yesterday with the escape from a French police station of the alleged leader of ETA's military structure, Ibon Fernandez Iradi alias "Susper".
Iradi had been arrested near Bayonne on Thursday along with his second in command Beltzane Olanos.
Fernandez and Olanos rose to the leadership of ETA last September following the arrest of their predecessors Olarra Guridi and Ainhoa Mujika.
Fernandez is alleged to be the person who had the final say on targets for terrorist attacks, named the people to carry them out and ordered the timing of operations.
He is believed to have been responsible for 18 operations involving four deaths. The two were detained by French police as they drove near Bayonne on Thursday morning. They were both armed at the time, but more important, they were carrying a diary with a list of addresses which led police to five apartments in the area where they discovered seven other terrorists suspects as well as explosives, arms, ammunition and valuable files with plans for future operations and names of militants.
One of the seven hiding in an apartment near the town of Pau was Balbino Saez Olarra who had been on police "wanted" lists since escaping a roundup of ETA suspects in Madrid last May.
He is believed to have been part of the unit which detonated a car bomb outside the Santiago Bernabeu football stadium shortly before the start of the match between Real Madrid and arch-rival Barcelona.
The nine detainees were being held in police stations in south-west France awaiting transport to Paris yesterday for interrogation by the anti-terrorist magistrates.
Police suspect that Fernandez, who is described as "very thin" managed to escape through a ventilation shaft into a yard and then over a wall into the streets of Bayonne. It is not known whether he had outside help, although he had ample time to disappear. He was last seen in his cell at 8 p.m. on Saturday night, but was not there when it was checked six hours later. Five police officers have been suspended pending further investigation.
A Madrid court has remanded Gotzon Aranzadi and Jesus Maria Etxeberria who were detained by Civil Guards on the outskirts of Madrid last week while transporting 130 kg of explosives. One of the guards died in the shooting incident and the other guard and one of the terrorists were injured. The second terrorist Jesus Maria Etxeberria managed to escape in a car he highjacked at gunpoint, but he was arrested in San Sebastian some six hours later.
ETA has suffered serious blows to its operating capacity over the past week. Aranzadi and Etxeberria have confessed that they had planned to detonate five bombs in crowded Madrid shopping centres on New Year's eve.