3 Held After Policeman Is Killed in Bombing Blamed on Basque Rebels

Police arrested three men in connection with the killing of a policeman in a car bombing Friday, the latest attack blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA.

The men were arrested in the Basque town of Hernani, in northwestern Spain, several hours after Inaki Totorika Vega, 25, was killed, said a spokesman for the Basque regional police force.

No one claimed responsibility for the bombing, but it bore the hallmarks of ETA, short for Basque Homeland and Freedom. The group is believed to have killed more than 800 people since it began fighting for an independent Basque state in 1968.

ETA usually takes weeks to claim responsibility for its acts and often does so in communiques to a pro-independence Basque newspaper.

Totorika died shortly after being hospitalized. Another injured officer was treated and released.

The officers were checking a vehicle that had been pushed into the middle of a street where gangs of youths had gone on a vandalism spree. The bomb, set off by remote control, exploded as the officers went to move the vehicle, the spokesman said.