• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

DATE=9/10/00

TYPE= CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=SPAIN / TERRORISM (L ONLY)

NUMBER=2-267684

BYLINE=GIL CARBAJAL

DATELINE=MADRID

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: In Spain, a prosecutor has been killed in the southern city of Granada. Gil Carbajal in Madrid reports experts believe the latest wave of attacks is in response to the arrest in France and Spain of several suspected members of the Basque terrorist group ETA.

TEXT: The chief prosecutor for the Superior Court of Justice in Granada, Luis Portero, was shot twice in the head at the entrance of his apartment building as he returned home for the mid-day meal. Although he was assigned a bodyguard, he often let the guard go at lunch -- as he did today. Witness said three assailants were involved in the attack. Mr. Portero was rushed to the hospital still alive but was later pronounced clinically dead.

Later, an automobile was blown up in the neighborhood -- a tactic often used by ETA terrorists to destroy evidence.

Spanish Justice Minister Angel Acebes and Interior Minister Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja -- who went to Granada to offer condolences to the family -- blamed the Basque group ETA for the murder. Mister Mayor Oreja said this attack indicated that ETA has a roving commando in the southern Spanish region of Andalousia.

This was the fourth terrorist attack since Saturday. Three military officers in Seville found bombs under the drivers seats of their cars. One of them drove 125 kilometers with a bomb under his seat, discovering it only when he tried to put his radio-cassette player away after arriving at his destination. On Monday, another officer noticed one of doors of his car had been forced open and he found the bomb under his seat.

Experts say they believe these attacks are in response to the arrest of more than 30 people in France and Spain in the past several weeks, including ETA's former maximum leader Igancio Gracia Arregi.

The first attack after the arrest of 20 members of ETA's financial and political infrastructure in the Basque Country was against a former justice minister of the Basque regional government, who survived a shot in his mouth. Monday, one of the nine suspected ETA members being tried in Paris threatened the prosecutor of his case, saying he would be among the next victims.

Fourteen people have been killed in 27 attacks since ETA called off a 14-month truce in December. The group has claimed responsibility for 12 of the deaths and most of the attacks. (Signed)

NEB/GC/JWH