DATE=7/19/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SPAIN / BOMB (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-264573
BYLINE=LOURDES NAVARRO
DATELINE=LONDON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Spanish police have defused a bomb placed in
the car of a local politician in the southern city
Malaga. Earlier Wednesday, a powerful bomb exploded
outside a shopping center in the northern town,
Vitoria, causing severe damages but no injuries.
Lourdes Navarro in London reports that both attacks
bear the hallmarks of the Basque Separatist group,
ETA.
TEXT: The explosion in the Basque capital city of
Vitoria destroyed much of the shopping center. It
shook residents of nearby apartments out of their
beds. But since the blast happened in the middle of
the night, it caused no injuries.
The police say they received a phone call from someone
claiming to be a part of the Basque separatist group,
ETA, only minutes before the bomb went off.
The early morning attack was quickly followed by the
police discovery of a bomb that had been placed in the
car of a local politician in the southern Spanish city
of Malaga. The device was diffused without incident
after the car's owner spotted it.
This last incident marks the fifth in the past week
blamed on ETA, which is fighting for independence from
Spain. The violence started a week ago when a car bomb
exploded in Spain's capital, Madrid, injuring 9
people. Over the weekend, an assassin shot a city
councilor in front of his wife and daughter in Malaga,
the same city in which Wednesday's car bomb was
diffused.
Police say they fear that the frequency of attacks
indicates that ETA is stepping up its campaign.
The separatist group has been fighting since the
1960's to carve an independent state out of Basque
areas wedged between Spain and France. Its campaigns
have left 800 people dead.
ETA announced this past December that it was ending
its 14-month cease-fire. Since then, ETA has been
blamed for the deaths of six people in a series of
shootings and bombings. The group blamed their
reversion to violence on the Spanish government's
refusal to discuss their demands for self-rule during
peace talks.
NEB/LN/GE/KBK
19-Jul-2000 08:53 AM EDT (19-Jul-2000 1253 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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