Suspected ETA guerrilla killed by bomb in Spain
( 2001-07-25 08:53 ) (7 )

A suspected member of the Basque separatist group ETA blew herself up and wounded seven bystanders in a popular tourist town in southeastern Spain on Tuesday, officials said.

The bomb blast in Torrevieja, a Mediterranean resort visited by Germans and Britons, sent broken glass flying into a pool in a housing development, injuring seven Spaniards including four children, state radio said, citing police sources.

The woman, identified as Olaia Castresana, 22, died "while handling a bomb in her home," a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said.

A second suspected ETA member fled the scene, a source with the central government office in Valencia region said.

ETA, one of the last active guerrilla groups in Western Europe, has killed some 800 people since 1968 in its drive for an independent homeland in Basque regions of northern Spain and southwestern France.

Foreigners and Spaniards alike flock to Torrevieja and other nearby towns on Spain's hot and dry southeastern Mediterranean coast, although Torrevieja is primarily a resort for Spaniards.

Moreover, ETA virtually never targets non-Spaniards.

Police originally reported the blast as a gas explosion. State radio said it was a move to help trace the other suspected ETA guerrilla, but the government source said it was due to initial confusion at the scene.

The explosives were suspected to have been part of a cache of dynamite stolen from Grenoble, France, last March, state radio said.

With Tuesday's accident 33 suspected ETA members have been killed by their own bombs, including four who accidentally blew up their car on the streets of the Basque city Bilbao last August 7.

In all about 100 ETA members have been killed since the armed campaign began 33 years ago.

ETA typically targets security forces and small-time politicians, each time drawing street protests from thousands of Spaniards demanding an end to the violence.

The killing stopped temporarily when ETA called a ceasefire in September 1998, but after one meeting with government representatives failed to produce a breakthrough the group ended the ceasefire in December 1999 and has been blamed for 34 killings since then, usually bombings or pistol shots to the back of the head.