ETA admits killing, bomb attacks

A banner held during a rally in Spain against ETA violence

MADRID, Spain -- Basque separatist group ETA has claimed responsibility for 11 attacks, including the recent killing of a local politician and two attempted murders.

ETA, in a communique sent to local media, said its activists two weeks ago gunned down Socialist town councillor Juan Priede Perez in the coastal town of Orio near San Sebastian.

The group also claimed responsibility for an attack on February 28 in which a bomb exploded in a shopping trolley as a Socialist woman councillor walked past. She survived with minor injuries.

The attack came nine days after a Socialist youth leader lost a leg from a limpet bomb attached to his car.

IN-DEPTH Basque conflict: Violence in Spain

The group also admitted planting a 20-kilo bomb at the Bilbao stock exchange on 4 March, which police disabled, saying it was aimed at the "financial powers which oppress the Basque country."

Three parcel bombs were sent to senior media executives in the Basque Country and banks and other companies bombed in recent months, ETA said.

More than 800 people have been killed during ETA's 34-year campaign for an independent Basque state carved out of northern Spain and southern France.

The group, whose name is a Basque-language acronym for Basque Homeland and Freedom, is classified as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.