Terror group suffers severe blow, says Zapatero

FRENCH and Spanish police arrested the reputed leader of ETA’s commando units yesterday — dealing a massive blow to the armed Basque separatist group, officials said.

Mikel de Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, 35, is suspected of taking part in several killings, including the December shooting deaths of two Spanish guardsmen in France, according to French and Spanish officials.

Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Aspiazu Rubina — known by the alias “Txeroki” — has been the operational chief of ETA’s hit squads and bombing units for several years.

“With this arrest, ETA has suffered a severe blow in its organisation and capability. Today, ETA is weaker,” Zapatero said. “This is a big step forward.”

The armed group has been fighting since the late 1960s to create an independent homeland in northern Spain and southwest France. The violence has claimed more than 800 lives.

Aspiazu Rubina’s arrest was the most significant since police detained the ETA’s alleged overall leader, Francisco Javier Lopez Pena, in May near Bordeaux.

Spanish media describe Aspiazu Rubina as one of ETA’s most-wanted members, a violent hard-liner who opposed ETA’s ceasefire of March 2006 and its subsequent peace talks with the government.

That truce ended in December 2006 when ETA detonated a car bomb at Madrid’s Barajas Airport, killing two people.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy hailed Aspiazu Rubina’s arrest as a sign of co-operation between French and Spanish police.

French counter terrorism agents working with Spanish police detained Aspiazu Rubina in a pre-dawn raid in the French border town of Cauterets, police said.

Police seized a handgun, documents and a computer from the hideout.

Zapatero said Aspiazu Rubina was suspected of taking part directly in the shooting dead of two Spanish civil guards on an intelligence operation in December in the coastal French town of Capbreton.