More ETA suspects arrested

Police, closing in on militant Basques hiding out in France, have arrested two more suspected members of the armed separatist group ETA, bringing to six the number of suspects arrested over the weekend, officials said today.

Bordeaux police said a man and a woman were arrested on Saturday hours after the arrests of four ETA suspects, including a leader of ETA’s operative commando units, Ainhoa Garca Montero.

The four, three Spaniards and one French national, were arrested in the town of Saintes, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Bordeaux, in south western France.

In Madrid, Spain’s Interior Minister Angel Acebes identified the two arrested in Bordeaux as Abelardo Castillo and Idoia Garmendia. He confirmed they were taken in as part of the operation that led to the detention of the four other ETA suspects.

The two were carrying semiautomatic weapons and falsified identification papers, Acebes said.

The arrests bring to 19 the number of ETA suspects captured in France so far this year.

France has been a traditional haven for militant Spanish Basques seeking an independent Basque state. The governments in Madrid and Paris are working together to uncover ETA hide-outs in France.

ETA, whose names stands of Basque Homeland and Freedom, is blamed for more than 800 killings since 1968.