Policeman killed in suspected ETA booby trap

A Spanish policeman was killed and three colleagues injured today when a booby trapped sign for Basque terror group Eta exploded as they began to inspect it.

The blast came less than a day after two suspected members of Eta died in what was thought to be an ‘own goal’ blast in their explosives-laden car in Bilbao.

The latest bomb was hidden behind a sign along a road leading to the town of Berastegui at the southeast tip of the Basque region.

The sign carried Eta’s logo, a snake wrapped around an axe..

Two police patrol cars stopped to examine the sign and it exploded, injuring four members of the Civil Guard, Spain’s paramilitary police force, one of them fatally. Another was reported in very serious condition.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Javier Arenas, the minister responsible for relations with Spain’s semi-autonomous regions, blamed Eta.

“We have always said we are winning the battle against terrorism but that bitter times would lie ahead, difficult times, because Eta kills whenever it can,” he said.

Two police Basque police were injured in November in a similar attack. They were about to pull down a banner urging Eta to kill police when the sign exploded, injuring both of them.

Today’s attack came less than a day after two suspected members of ETA died when their explosives-laden car detonated in Bilbao.

Basque Interior Minister Javier Balza announced the new blast at a press conference initially called to discuss the explosion that occurred shortly before midnight on Monday.

He said one of Monday’s suspected Eta members had been identified from a photo found in the remains of the car but the other would be very hard to identify because both bodies were blown to pieces.

Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said the suspected Eta members killed in Bilbao had apparently been planning an attack for today. He said they had been carrying about 33 pounds of explosives in a knapsack.