Police swoop on ETA cell

MADRID, Spain -- Spain believes it has foiled a planned ETA terrorist attack on a forthcoming international summit meeting.

Police said they have arrested nine ETA suspects, including two men in Madrid believed to be prominent members of the violent Basque separatist group.

The pair, who were detained on Tuesday, are believed to be linked to two recent car bombs in Madrid. At the time of their arrest they were armed with more explosives, officials said.

Madrid regional governor Francisco Javier Ansuategui said: "It was a real arsenal.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO Spanish police arrest two men in Madrid, saying they were planning an attack timed to coincide with an EU summit. CNN's Matthew Chance reports (May 15) Play video   IN-DEPTH Basque conflict: Violence in Spain

"These two persons didn't want to scare. They wanted to kill and to kill with all its consequences."

Spanish Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy said they may have been planning an attack at this week's summit of European Union and Latin American leaders in Madrid.

Rajoy said police found three cars believed to belong to ETA.

One of them was prepared as a car bomb containing 40 kilos of explosives, while a second contained two pistols, false documents and a limpet bomb that was ready to be attached to the car of an unsuspecting victim, he said.

"ETA is still operational but has been severely weakened recently by police activity," Rajoy said.

National Police director Juan Cotino said six other people suspected of passing information to ETA commandoes were arrested in northern Spain on Wednesday.

Cotino also said French police had arrested another ETA suspect who was carrying a firearm when detained at a traffic stop.

One of the two men arrested in Madrid, age 26, is suspected of the killing of two Basque police officers last November. The two officers were shot from behind while directing traffic.

The other man arrested in Madrid, age 39, is a former ETA guerrilla who fled Spain for Mexico in 1994 but later returned to became active in the group again, Rajoy told a news conference.

The latest arrests raise to more than 90 the number of people detained in Europe this year in a crackdown on ETA.

On Monday, Spain's High Court convicted and sentenced 17 members or collaborators of the group.

Among those sentenced was Inaki Bilbao, who received a 101-year term. The other 16 sentences added up to 283 years.

Bilbao and the others were arrested in 1998 when police broke up an ETA cell in Vizcaya province, one of three provinces making up the Basque Country in the north of Spain.

The terror group is held responsible for more than 800 killings since 1968 in its drive for an independent Basque state.

It has claimed responsibility for 39 killings since January 2000, when it resumed violence after an 18-month cease-fire.