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Spain fears Basque violence is escalating

Fears mounted in Spain on Friday that the armed Basque separatist group ETA was stepping up its campaign of violence, following the discovery of explosives caches and two threats of airport bombs.

Police in Spain's northern Basque region said they had discovered 80kg of explosive, including ammonium nitrate, in the small town of Atxondo, near where another cache of some 90kg was discovered on Thursday.

The finds came six days after a huge bomb destroyed an airport carpark in Madrid, killing two Ecuadoran men who were sleeping in their cars in the early morning unaware of telephone warnings.

One call claimed responsibility in ETA's name.

ETA broke off a nine-month ceasefire with the Madrid blast and the discoveries of the explosives, coupled with bomb threats which ultimately did not materialize at Bilbao airport in the Basque region and on the Canary Island of Tenerife, raised fears of a wholesale return to violence.

Both early afternoon threats -- in Tenerife some 180 passengers were initially taken off a plane bound from Tenerife to Belfast -- appeared to have been hoaxes and the situation was returning to normal at the airports by early evening.

ETA has pursued since 1968 a violent campaign for an independent Basque state which has cost some 850 lives to date.

Yesterday's victims, recovered from the rubble following the Madrid bombing, were the first fatalities ascribed to the group since May 2003.

By Friday evening ETA, which had clearly announced its intentions following the breakdown of two previous ceasefires in 1989 and 1999, had still to release a statement on the Madrid blast.

Official government sources meanwhile said Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero would address parliament on how he planned to tackle the crisis during the week starting Jan. 15 in response to opposition demands he unveil his anti-terror strategy in the wake of the blast.

Prior to Zapatero's appearance, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba will hold talks on Tuesday and Wednesday with party leaders in an effort to try to find a "common strategy."

Zapatero, who has made resolving the conflict his top priority and whose government had held out the prospect of a negotiated settlement prior to the Madrid blast, was due to visit Japan between Jan. 16 and Jan. 18 but "he may shorten his trip," his office told reporters.

Zapatero earlier on Friday held three hours of talks with members of his Cabinet to discuss the security implications of the new upsurge in ETA violence.

Earlier, police said they had evidence linking the explosives caches to Saturday's blast in Madrid, according to media reports the authorities had found a mobile telephone which appeared to link the incidents and which had been used for one of the Madrid bomb warnings.

Experts consulted by El Pais newspaper said the type and quantity of explosive discovered was comparable to that which wrecked the carpark at Madrid airport.

Overnight in Madrid, emergency services had located the body of a 19-year-old Ecuadoran Diego Armando Estacio in the airport rubble and firefighters were still working to recover his corpse from his crushed car.
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