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ETA: Bomb ours, cease-fire stands

From CNN's Madrid bureau chief Al Goodman
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MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- The Basque separatist group ETA claimed responsibility Tuesday for the Madrid airport bombing on Dec. 30 that killed two people, but ETA also insisted, in a statement to a Basque newspaper, that its 9-month-old cease-fire remained intact.

Authorities had already blamed the car-bomb attack on the separatist group. The attack killed two Ecuadorean immigrants and caused slight injuries to about 20 other people.

After the bombing, which collapsed a five-story parking garage and caused other damage at the airport's newest terminal, the government said the fledging peace process was finished.

ETA assumed blame for the blast in the Basque newspaper Gara, where ETA often takes responsibility for attacks. There were three warning calls before the bombing, including one in the name of ETA.

Also Tuesday, police arrested two suspected members of ETA in southern France, the Spanish Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The arrests of the two men were the first such detentions since the airport car bombing.

Both suspects had been sought in connection with a car bomb seized in Spain's northern Basque country last week, as well as a nearby ETA weapons hideout discovered December 23, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told a news conference in Madrid.

Spain's Interior Ministry identified the suspects as Asier Larrinaga Rodriguez and Garikoitz Etxebarria Goikoetxea, and distributed their photographs.

French police, working with Spanish police, arrested both suspects near the southern French town of Ascain, near the Spanish border, the statement said.

The separatist group had promised that its cease-fire -- declared March 22 -- would be "permanent," raising hopes for an end to nearly 40 years of ETA violence blamed for more than 800 deaths and thousands of injuries. ETA wants an independent Basque homeland.

ETA has traditionally used southern France, just north of Spain's Basque region, as a rear-guard logistics base. But in recent years, increased French and Spanish police cooperation has made it more difficult for ETA operatives in France.

There are about 500 ETA convicts or suspects in Spanish jails and more than 100 more in French jails, authorities have told CNN.


story.asier.jpg

An image of suspect Asier Larringa Rodriguez released by the Spanish government.

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