21 held in Eta raids

Police in France and Spain arrested 21 suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group Eta today in a series of raids that authorities described as a blow to the organisation’s logistics unit.

Twenty of the suspects were captured in French towns including Saint Pierre d’Irubek, Briscous, Ayherre and Hendaye, Spain’s Interior Ministry said in a statement. One was arrested in the northern Spanish city of Burgos.

Their identities and nationalities were not immediately released.

Spanish officials described the raids as a major operation that will weaken the logistics of the group, which has sought an independent state in northern Spain since the 1960s.

“The French police are carrying out home searches where they expect to find an important stock of arms and explosives,” the statement said.

The national news agency Efe reported that police have seized assault rifles, bomb-making material and ammunition.

The operation is being led by French anti-terrorist judge Laurence Le Vert after four years of investigations. Mr Le Vert was expected to arrive in the area later today.

French authorities sent the suspects’ fingerprints to Spanish police for help in tracking down their identities.

The raids came on the heels of the arrests earlier this week in Spain of five people who were suspected of helping Eta members slip across the border into France.