French police have arrested two senior figures of the armed Basque separatist group ETA, including the group's military commander who escaped French custody in 2000, officials and media said on Friday.
Felix Alberto Lopez de Lacalle, alias "Mobutu" who is believed to be ETA's military mastermind, was arrested near the southern French town of Angouleme, French police sources said.
His girlfriend, also suspected of being an ETA member, was arrested with him, Spanish media said.
Earlier on Friday, French police arrested a man suspected of being an ETA leader wanted for a number of killings in the 1980s, in further evidence of the increased cooperation between France and Spain in recent years as part of a crackdown on ETA.
After completing a prison term in 2000, Lopez de Lacalle was due to be extradited to Spain. But while under guard at a hotel in Aubusson in November 2000, he escaped by tying blankets together, scaling down the side of the hotel and fleeing in a waiting getaway car.
Spain says Lopez de Lacalle then returned to ETA's guerrilla campaign for an independent state in northern Spain and southwestern France, in which nearly 850 people have been killed since 1968.
The Spanish government initially blamed ETA for the March 11 Madrid train bombings until evidence emerged pointing to Islamic militants.
"He is the top leader right now for ETA bombs and attacks. He is the maximum leader for the most serious activity of ETA, which is not a political organization but a terrorist organization," a Spanish Interior Ministry spokesman said.
Lopez de Lacalle ascended to leadership in ETA in 1992 and Spanish police link him to six ETA killings between 1978 and 1980, newspaper La Vanguardia said.
Another suspected ETA leader, wanted for a number of killings in the 1980s was arrested close to Dax in southwest France after long surveillance as part of a wider operation, Spain's interior minister said on Friday.
Felix Ignacio Esparza Luri, who was carrying a gun and forged identification papers at the time of his arrest, is wanted in Spain for seven murders and a kidnapping, officials said.
"We give a great deal of importance to this arrest as there are several judicial warrants for this terrorist and he was one of the members of this terrorist organization we most wanted to arrest," Interior Minister Angel Acebes said.
"He formed part of the leadership of the terrorist organization ETA, and was responsible for its logistics," the minister said.
Security sources said Esparza Luri was responsible within ETA for acquiring and using explosives and vehicles and organizing border crossings.
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