Eta blamed for murder of newspaper boss

A Spanish newspaper executive was shot today in the first killing blamed on the Basque terrorist group Eta since elections 10 days ago dealt a severe blow to its political wing.

The Basque regional government identified the victim as Santiago Oleaga, 42, chief financial officer of the newspaper El Diario Vasco.

The shooting occurred around 7.30am as Oleaga was parking his car across the street from a hospital in San Sebastian, a coastal city in northern Spain.

Spanish state radio said one or more gunmen shot Oleaga two or three times in the head and that he died almost instantly.

In the Spanish government’s first reaction, Labour Minister Juan Carlos Aparicio blamed Eta.

He said Eta was ignoring the results of the May 13 elections to the Basque regional parliament in which the party seen as terror group’s political wing lost half of its seats, going from 14 to seven. The big winner in the election was a moderate Basque nationalist party opposed to Eta.

"I think it is obvious that there are those who simply do not want to recognise the results of the elections," Aparicio said.

About an hour after the shooting, a car bomb exploded in another area of San Sebastian but there were no injuries.

The white Renault may have been the getaway vehicle used after the gun attack, and the explosion was meant to destroy finger prints and any other evidence, police said.