Five ETA suspects arrested in northern Spain

Five suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA have been detained in northern Spain.

The crackdown comes amid fears of an increased risk of attacks during the country’s six month presidency of the EU. Spain’s anti-terror alert was raised over Christmas.

Those arrested on the border of the Basque provinces of Biscay and Guipuzcoa are set to be questioned over the car bombing of a police station in September 2008. Several people were injured.

One of the five, named as Ibai Iparraguirre Burgoa, is also suspected of involvement in a deadly attack near a military academy in Santona in northern Spain. The blast, also in September 2008, killed an army officer.

ETA is demanding an independent Basque homeland formed of parts of northern Spain and southern France. It has killed around 850 people in bombings and shootings over the last four decades.

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