ETA suspects held in swoop

THE suspected leader of Basque separatist group ETA’s armed cells and three other alleged members of the organisation were arrested in France, Spanish and French officials said.

The arrests came in a joint raid by French and Spanish police in Willencourt in northern France, officials said.

ETA declared a ceasefire in September and went further in January by calling it permanent, raising hopes for an end to Europe’s last armed political militancy. But the Spanish government is insisting ETA dissolve.

One of the four arrested is Alejandro Zobaran Arriola, 29, who an Interior Ministry statement described as the head of ETA’s “military apparatus.”

Another is the alleged logistics chief, Mikel Oroz Torrea, 31, the statement said.