ETA attack team arrested in Spain

Spanish police arrested eight suspected ETA members in dawn raids that dismantled the Basque separatists' most active guerilla unit, media reported yesterday.

Among those captured was Arkaitz Goikoetxea, alleged leader of the "Vizcaya cell", blamed for killing three police officers and a Socialist councillor after the Basque guerillas called off a ceasefire in June last year, Spanish media said.

"This is a special morning because today we feel a little more free because several terrorists have been arrested," said Rodolfo Ares, a leader of the Basque Socialist Party.

The Interior Ministry declined to confirm the reports but said Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba would make a statement on an anti-terrorism operation.

Police raided towns and villages in the Vizcaya region near Bilbao in the early hours yesterday.

The arrests follow the explosion of four bombs in Cantabrian holiday resorts in northern Spain on Sunday that marked the beginning of ETA's traditional summer campaign against the Spanish tourist infrastructure. Spain's Socialist government says ETA, considered a terrorist group by the EU and the US, has been severely weakened by a string of high-profile arrests.