18 hurt in ETA blasts in Spain

At least 18 people were slightly injured in the nearly simultaneous ETA blasts in Spain today.

The blasts were in Valladolid, Leon and Santillana del Mar in the north, Avila and Ciudad Real in central Spain, Alicante in the east and Malaga in the south, the Interior Ministry said.

The explosions, which occurred at coffee houses and other public places, came about an hour after two calls to the Basque newspaper Gara from people claiming to represent the terror group.

Authorities had time to evacuate the places mentioned in the calls, although in at least two cases the explosions occurred elsewhere.

In the popular tourist town of Santillana del Mar, 15 people were hurt by flying shards of glass or chunks of wood when the blast destroyed a tourist information booth in a park.

The injured included a seven-year-old girl and her mother, officials said. Three people were injured in Ciudad Real as the bomb exploded while authorities were evacuating a coffee shop.

The blasts were small and apparently calculated to avoid loss of life. One Basque analyst said this showed the political constraints ETA faces after the Madrid train bombings by suspected Muslim militants in March and the ensuing, nationwide revulsion over terrorism, even among Basque nationalists who back ETA’s goals of independence.

“ETA wants to sow fear. It wants to draw attention, but cannot afford to kill people. That’s why they set off bombs the size of a bar of chocolate,” said former ETA member Teo Uriarte, who now opposes ETA and Basque nationalism and leads an association working for peace in the region.

He described the explosions as a “qualitative leap” in ETA's strategy - reminding Spaniards it is still around, even if it dare not kill.

Uriarte said he was surprised by the string of explosions, and suggested they might have been planned by young Basque militants acting in ETA’s name but without specific orders from the group’s leaders.