11 Killed, 30 Injured by Car Bomb Explosion in Spain

A car bomb exploded at a Civil Guard family barracks Friday, killing 11 people and wounding at least 30, authorities reported. Among the dead were an officer’s 2-year-old twin daughters and two other young girls.

Officials blamed separatists from the group ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom), who regularly attack the national paramilitary police in their fight to gain independence for Spain’s northern Basque provinces.

“The government has not the slightest doubt that ETA was responsible for this attack. . . ,” said Javier Solana, a spokesman for the national government.

The national news agency EFE said the explosion at 6 a.m. turned the three-story brick building into “a mass of rubble with broken furniture, toys and a pair of child’s skates sticking out of bricks and beams.”

National television showed dozens of firemen and rescue workers digging through the rubble, throwing aside bloody bed sheets.

Angel Luis Serrano, the Zaragoza civil governor, said the car contained about 90 pounds of explosives and blew up at the rear of the barracks housing about 50 Civil Guard families.

Just minutes before the blast, an officer on guard duty went to tell the driver of the explosives-laden car he could not park on the street, officials said.

The driver jumped from the vehicle just before it exploded and escaped.