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| Europe |
| 2 police officers killed in explosion blamed on ETA on Mallorca |
| 2009-07-31 |
| A powerful bomb on the Spanish resort island of Mallorca killed two police officers in their patrol vehicle Thursday, the second attack blamed on Basque separatist group ETA in two days. Police found a second bomb under another police jeep later Thursday in the same area and carried out a controlled explosion. Authorities temporarily blocked all outgoing flights and ships from leaving Mallorca as part of a manhunt. That attack was the second blamed on ETA in less than 36 hours. A powerful car bomb Wednesday destroyed a police barracks in the northern Spanish city of Burgos, injuring about 60 people. If confirmed as ETA attacks, the blasts would conflict with government assertions that the group is seriously weakened after major police crackdowns in Spain and France in recent years. The 50th anniversary of ETA's founding is Friday and the group may be trying to demonstrate with attacks on the two consecutive days before the milestone that it was not in any danger of breaking up. The officers killed Thursday were aged 27 and 28. They belonged to the paramilitary Civil Guard, which is chiefly in charge of policing rural areas and guarding official buildings. Television images showed the charred and mangled remains of a vehicle that had been parked on a street in the Palmanova beach resort area, southwest of the island's capital, Palma de Mallorca. The blast was caused by a bomb attached to the underneath of the vehicle, Interior Ministry official Ramon Socias said. Police believe the attack was carried out by an ETA cell that came to the island specifically to carry it out and was not based there, he said. The island's airport and ports were closed shortly after 4 p.m. (1400 GMT, 10 a.m. EDT) and reopened just under two hours later, police said. |
| Posted by:Fred |