Bombing in Spain Leaves Two People Dead

Two people, including a 6-year-old girl, were killed and several others were injured Sunday when a car bomb exploded in front of a military police barracks in southeastern Spain, police and a government official said. At least 25 people were injured.

A 50-year-old man, identified as Cecilio Gallego, who was waiting at a bus stop next to the barracks, died in the blast, Interior Ministry official Francisco Camps said.

Police said the car bomb exploded shortly after 8:30 p.m. in the resort town of Santa Pola, about 225 miles southeast of Madrid.

Investigating Judge Gordiano Casas said the unidentified girl, the daughter of a military police officer, was playing in her bedroom inside the barracks when the bomb went off.

The other 25 people injured suffered cuts and burns; two of them remained hospitalized in serious condition, Camps said.

Although the cause of the blast had yet to be confirmed, Interior Minister Angel Acebes blamed the attack on the Basque separatist group ETA. “ETA kills whenever it can, and when it doesn’t kill it is only because the security forces have taken apart their commandos.... Now they have attacked a little girl, the daughter of a Civil Guard [officer],” Acebes told Antena 3 television at the scene.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. ETA typically waits several weeks before admitting its attacks.

ETA has killed more than 800 people since 1968 to press its demands for an independent state in Basque areas of northern Spain and southwestern France. It is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the U.S.

ETA’s last fatal attack came March 21, when a Socialist politician was shot dead in a bar in the Basque town of Orio.

Recently, the group has claimed responsibility for several car bombings around the country, including five blasts that coincided with the EU summit in Seville in June. No one was killed in those incidents.