Homeland Security

DATE = 12/09/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=FRANCE / ETA (SHORT)

NUMBER=2-310650

BYLINE= LISA BRYANT

DATELINE=PARIS

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: French police arrested today (Tuesday) the suspected military head of the Basque terrorist group ETA along with three alleged accomplices. Lisa Bryant has more from Paris.

TEXT: Police officials identified one of those arrested as Gorka Palacios Alday, the alleged military leader for the ETA separatist group. Spanish police have blamed Palacios for the assassination of a Spanish politician three years ago.

French police said three others captured during Tuesday's dawn raid near The southern French town of Pau were less important members of ETA. Police also confiscated false identity papers and weapons in the apartment where the suspects were apprehended.

The terrorist group is blamed for the deaths of more than 800 people in Spain during its 30-year struggle for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.

The arrests come just five days after French police captured another alleged leader of ETA near the Spanish border. The man, Fernandez de Iradi, escaped a year ago from a police station in the southwestern French city of Bayonne.

In recent years, French and Spanish police have cooperated more closely in cracking down on suspected ETA members. Experts say greater coordination has facilitated arrests, such as the latest near Pau. (SIGNED)

NEB/LB/MAR