World

Car Bomb Kills Basque Separatists

August 7, 2000 / 11:46 PM EDT / AP

A car bomb exploded late on Monday in the northern Basque city of Bilbao, killing at least three suspected separatists who appeared to be transporting the explosive.

The three victims were apparently inside the moving car when it exploded and burst into flames. Police said they were investigating whether the three were activists of the Basque separatist group ETA.

The national news agency Efe said one of the victims was Patxi Rementeria, suspected chief of the Commando Vizcaya, one of ETA's bloodiest units.

Police said the remains of the two men and a woman found at the scene were being examined in an attempt to identify them. Weapons were also found in the street, apparently blasted from the car in the explosion.

Police said they were investigating whether the car was en route to an attack when the bomb exploded.

The ETA — an acronym that stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom — has killed some 800 people since beginning a violent campaign in the late 1960s to carve an independent homeland out of Basque areas in northern Spain and southwest France.

In an acceleration of the violence, 17 attacks have been blamed on ETA since it ended a 14-month cease-fire in December, including nine attacks in July alone.

Seven people had been killed before Monday's incident.

The recent spate of violence included the assassinations in July of a town councilor in the southern city of Malaga and a former senior government official in the Basque country.

Bilbao Mayor Inaki Azuna, who rushed to the scene Monday night, said the "terrorists" had probably targeted "some citizen or a building in Bilbao."

He urged "dialogue instead of pistols and car bombs."

The explosion occurred near a street intersection in the sparsely populated industrial neighborhood of Bolueta in Bilbao shortly before 11 p.m.

One body was thrown 50 yards from the blast. Weapons were also found in the street, apparently blasted from the car in the explosion.