Mon, September 22, 2008
Ten people were slightly wounded when a car bomb exploded outside a police station in the coastal town of Ondarroa in Spain's Basque Country.
The attack is being blamed on the Basque separatist group, ETA. A police spokesman said there was "no doubt that the aim was to kill as many people as possible."
Hours earlier, another car bomb exploded near a bank in the regional capital Vitoria. No one was injured in that attack, after police were able to clear the area following a coded telephone warning.
SCRIPT:
Two car bombs exploded within hours of one another in Spain's Basque Country.
The first went off around midnight in the business district of Vitoria - capital of the troubled northern Spanish region.
Police were able to evacuate the area in time after receiving a coded telephone warning in the name of Basque separatist rebels, ETA.
A bank and nearby buildings were badly damaged.
President of Caja Vita bank, Gregorio Rojo said the attacks only harmed ETA's cause.
(SOUNDBITE) (SPANISH) PRESIDENT OF BANK OF CAJA VITAL GREGORIO ROJO SAYING:
This incident is not going to unify us! Never!"
The second car bombing took place without warning at a police station in the town of Ondarroa, near Bilbao.
10 people were hurt - including three police officers and several passersby.
A police spokesman said there was "no doubt that the aim was to kill as many people as possible."
The bombers parked near the station entrance and threw molotov cocktails at the building to lure officers into the street.
ETA has killed more than 800 people in four decades of armed struggle for traditional Basque lands in northern Spain and southwestern France.
The attacks came just days before the regional government of the Basque Country was due to lodge a complaint at the European Court of Human Rights about the refusal by Spanish authorities to let them proceed with a referendum-style vote on the region's future.
(Source: Reuters)
