Bombs Rock Spanish Resorts as EU Leaders Meet

[Geoffrey]

Bombs Rock Spanish Resorts as EU Leaders Meet
Fri Jun 21, 8:07 AM ET
By Begona Quesada

FUENGIROLA, Spain (Reuters) - Car bombs rocked two Spanish tourist resorts on Friday, injuring at least six people in attacks by suspected Basque separatists timed to coincide with the start of a European Union ( news - web sites) summit in Seville.


Officials said they received a telephoned warning in the name of ETA before the first blast which blew in windows at a large hotel in the popular beach resort of Fuengirola, near the southern coastal city of Malaga.

Government officials confirmed a second explosion in the nearby coastal town of Marbella only hours later. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties.

There was speculation that the second blast was caused by attackers blowing up a getaway car, as ETA often does in order to destroy evidence.

Of the injured in Fuengirola, one Briton was seriously hurt by flying shrapnel and was in hospital, a British Embassy official in Madrid said.

The rest of the injured were slightly hurt, including three children -- two British and one Moroccan. They were treated for cuts and bruises at a local health center.

The Fuengirola car bomb exploded just as European Union leaders were gathering for their two-day summit in Seville, about 100 miles from the resort.

"This must have been an itinerant (ETA) command cell that probably came here, left the bomb, and went again," said Jose Torres, a central government official in the region.

Last week the government said it had foiled an attack aimed at sowing chaos during the Seville meeting. Security has been tight in case of an attack by ETA, which has waged a three- decade campaign for Basque independence in which more than 800 people have died.

The Fuengirola car bomb was planted near the hotel on the main road bordering the sea. The resort is particularly popular with British tourists.

Security officials carried out another controlled explosion after a suspicious parcel was found near the site of the car bomb. The incident turned out to be a false alarm.

ETA does not normally claim responsibility for its actions until weeks afterwards, but typically times attacks to coincide with major political events.

TOURISM TARGETED

In the past, ETA has targeted tourist centers and at one time even left bombs on beaches in resorts packed with foreign tourists during the summer months.

Those campaigns have not caused deaths and appear not to have dampened Spain's popularity as a holiday destination. Tourism accounts for about 12 percent of Spain's economy.

On Thursday, ETA criticized the EU for leaving the Basques behind, complaining that "Basque homeland has no place in the current Europe."

ETA wants a state in the Basque areas of northern Spain and southwestern France.

In a statement sent to Basque language media in Spain and France, ETA also demanded the EU ask Spain and France to "change their conduct" because they were "condemning the Basque homeland to death."

ETA action had also been anticipated in the run-up to the March Barcelona EU summit.

In a general strike on Thursday, nearly a million Spaniards took to the streets in protest at the center-right government's labor reforms. Travel disruptions left many tourists stranded