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Basque town official killed in car bomb attack

Vehicle
Police inspect the charred vehicle   
January 9, 1998
Web posted at: 10:34 a.m. EST (1534 GMT)

ZARAUZ, Spain (CNN) -- A Basque town councilor died Friday after a car bomb explosion ripped off his arm and leg.

Jose Ignacio Irureta Goiena, 35, a politician in Spain's ruling Popular Party, was driving to work at his family's lumber business when the bomb went off under the seat of his car. Emergency workers worked for more than half an hour to try to revive him, but were unable to save his life.

The government blamed the Basque separatist group ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom), although the group did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack.

The Popular Party has been targeted by ETA, which has already claimed responsibility for killing three other town councilors from the same conservative party.

"I think that the terrorists want to murder those who are democratic," Spanish government spokesman Miguel Angel Rodriguez told state radio. "I think that we have to continue living for freedom, and that we won't take a step backwards."

Emergency vehicles

The latest attack came a day after the Popular Party's chief representative in the Basque region, Carlos Iturgaiz, asked for greater police protection for the party's members.

"Once again, it has been proved that we are a clear target," Iturgaiz said after the attack.

The outlawed group killed 13 people last year, and nearly 800 people over the last 30 years in their fight for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain.

Although most of the ETA's victims have been security force members, in recent years the organization has increasingly targeted politicians. Six million Spaniards marched last summer against terrorism after another conservative party town councilman was killed.

Since then, bodyguards have been assigned to the party's 200 elected officials in the Basque region.

But it has not stopped all of the attacks against them, especially since last month, when the leaders of a leftist political party were sentenced to jail for collaborating with the Basque rebels.

The government says it will not negotiate with the rebels until they lay down their guns.

Reporter Al Goodman and Reuters contributed to this report.

 
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