Spanish Police Seize Explosives in Basque Raid

Police raided another suspected car-bomb assembly site of the outlawed separatist group ETA on Thursday, seizing 55 pounds of explosives.

The raid took place in Zaldibia, a village in Guipuzcoa province, about 25 miles from the coastal city of San Sebastian, police said.

Police said tire marks and a stash of forged license plates suggested that the ETA had been preparing a car-bomb attack at the site.

On Wednesday, eight suspected members of the group were arrested and police seized a car bomb, weapons and bomb-making material in the town of Lasarte, also in Guipuzcoa.

The ETA, whose initials are an acronym for Basque Homeland and Freedom, has killed about 800 people in shootings and bombings since launching its armed struggle for independence in 1968.

This week’s raids signal a tougher government stance against violent Basque separatism, and the campaign got a further boost Thursday when France sent a convicted ETA member back to Spain to face charges of murder, kidnapping and bombing.

Jose Luis Urrusolo Sistiaga, alias Joseba, has already served more than four years in a French jail for associating with a group with terrorist aims, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said.

Urrusolo, 43, is accused of being involved in 16 assassinations, the bombing of a building in Madrid in 1981 and two kidnappings.