A man thought to be a member of the Basque separatist group ETA who was arrested in Spain this week was preparing a car-bomb attack against a public building, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said on Wednesday.
Rubalcaba told reporters that the suspect, Aritz Arginzoniz Zubiarre, who was detained at a bus station in the port city of Santander, belonged to an ETA cell that intended to bomb a parking lot near a public building during "the next few days." He did not specify the type of building or the location of the intended attack.
Arginzoniz was caught carrying a revolver, false documents, and two timers for triggering bombs after he aroused suspicion by leaving his rucksack unattended on the bus station floor, the government said.
The Interior Ministry said he identified himself to police officers as a member of ETA.
The authorities were hunting for his girlfriend, Saioa Sanchez Iturregi, who they believe was involved in the plot, the newspaper El Pais reported.
More than 12 ETA members have been arrested in a series of police operations since the group formally ended a 15-month ceasefire on June 5. In practice, the truce ended when a bomb planted by ETA killed two men at a Madrid airport on Dec. 30.
The government, which has highlighted its hard line on ETA after a failed attempt to negotiate peace with the group, said that three car-bomb attacks had been thwarted in recent weeks.
"ETA is going to keep on trying to attack, but we are going to keep on trying to make sure they don't succeed," Rubalcaba said.
On Wednesday, the Spanish government said the French authorities had detained two other members of ETA. An Interior Ministry spokeswoman said two armed men were arrested on Wednesday while driving a stolen van near the French town of Angouleme.
Last week, Rubalcaba said another car bombing had been averted when the French police arrested three suspected ETA members driving a stolen car near the Spanish border on July 2. The car was packed with explosives.
Former British prime minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday urged so-called middle powers to become a “poisonous shrimp” to carve out strategic economic leverage in a more turbulent global environment. Sunak drew from a metaphor by former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀): A big fish will eat a smaller fish, and the smaller fish will eat the shrimp. Lee made the point a year after the Asian nation’s independence in 1966 that the city-state needed to build up its defense mechanisms — like a shrimp that stings — so it would be left alone by predators. “He was thinking about what Singapore’s
POLL POSITION: Democrats criticized the timing of the raid, saying that the US justice department historically avoids public investigations within 60 days of an election Federal agents on Monday searched the home of Democratic US Representative Ilhan Omar, a startling escalation in a criminal investigation that brings renewed focus to the frequent target of White House derision in the final weeks of her re-election bid. The search of the Minnesota congresswoman’s home so close to next month’s midterm contests that would determine control of the US House and the Senate was swiftly condemned by top Democrats in Congress, who raised questions about the timing given longstanding US Department of Justice (DOJ) protocol to avoid overt investigative steps involving political candidates in the direct run-up to an
A Rhode Island pumpkin grower appears to have broken the world record for the heaviest pumpkin, with his giant squash topping the record by nearly 136kg. Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island, weighed his pumpkin on Saturday at a contest in New England and is waiting for the Guinness World Records to confirm he smashed the record, set about a week earlier by a grower in England. Wallace said he has been in contact with Guinness officials who say his record is on track to be verified. “It’s truly massive, it was a pleasure to grow,” Wallace said on Monday. Guinness World Records lists
A 16-year-old on Thursday shot his way through locked doors to get into an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, killing three children and a teacher. He was then shot by a person at the scene who followed him inside, authorities said. The suspect was found dead inside the school minutes after the shooting was first reported, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said. The three children killed were aged 5, 8 and 11. Another child, 7, and a teacher, 54, were injured and taken to the hospital in critical condition, he said. The first 911 call came just before 1pm from a person in
RSS