Street Violence Flares in Basque Area

Basque activists enraged by the arrest of separatist leaders hurled Molotov cocktails and set off a homemade bomb in widespread street violence, news reports said. State radio reported 17 incidents across the Basque region of northern Spain. A spokesman for the regional police said four people were treated for smoke inhalation in San Sebastian and five were arrested for public disorder. The violence followed Tuesday’s arrest in Paris of five members of the separatist ETA. Spanish police described one of those arrested as the leader of the group’s paramilitary wing. The next day, police who had been monitoring two senior ETA operatives in San Sebastian arrested them when it appeared they were preparing to flee Spain.