November 18, 2008	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 19, 1429

MADRID, Nov 17: The suspected military leader of Basque separatist group ETA has been arrested in France, Spanish and French authorities said on Monday.

Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, known by his alias “Txeroki” or “Cherokee”, was arrested along with an unnamed female ETA suspect at 3.30 a.m. (0230 GMT) in France’s mountainous Pyrenean region near the Spanish border, French police said.

It was the latest in a series of captures of senior ETA figures and appeared to be the biggest blow to the organisation since May, when ETA’s top commander Francisco Javier Lopez Pena was arrested in the French city of Bordeaux.

“Today ETA is weaker and Spanish democracy is stronger.

ETA has not lost its capacity to attack, it hasn’t lost its capacity to hurt, but it has been dealt a hard blow,” Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told a news conference in Madrid.

Aspiazu, 35, is suspected of involvement in the killing of two Spanish civil guard police in the French seaside town of Capbreton in December 2007, police said.

Spanish media have also said security forces blame Aspiazu for ordering a car bombing at Madrid airport in December 2006 which killed two people and wrecked peace talks with the Spanish government.

Aspiazu faces trial in France for the Capbreton killings but Madrid will ask that he be sent for trial in Spain on other charges, before being returned to serve any French sentence, a spokesman for Spain’s State Prosecution Service said.

Aspiazu, whose Spanish police photo shows a tough-looking man with a thin beard and a mullet hairstyle, has been in charge of ETA’s military operations for several years, during which time the group has staged dozens of attacks, security services believe.

He is also suspected of involvement in a failed plot to assassinate King Juan Carlos in Majorca in 2004, Spanish media reported.

“Having a man with Txeroki’s record in police hands is going to save lives,” Zapatero said.

SARKOZY HAILS ARREST: French President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed the arrest.

“This arrest shows once again the strong commitment of the French police and gendarmerie and the excellent cooperation between France and Spain in the fight against Basque terrorism,” he said in a statement.

Several ETA suspects have been arrested in recent years and Spanish authorities say the group has been reduced to a relatively small number of fighters. But it has continued to carry out regular bombings.

ETA began its violent campaign for the independence of the Basque Country in northern Spain in the late years of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco in the 1960s, and has killed more than 800 people in four decades.

With the Basque language receiving state support and the region enjoying considerable autonomy over areas including education and health, ETA has become increasingly isolated.

Polls indicate most Basques do not want independence and there have been media reports of disagreements between ETA and its outlawed political wing Batasuna.

French police arrested Aspiazu in the apartment he had been renting since last week in the spa town of Cauterets. They found a pistol, a computer and fraudulent French and Spanish identity documents. He made no comment during his arrest.

The two policemen he is suspected of killing were in France to keep him under surveillance in a joint operation between French and Spanish police.

They were shot in their car in the parking lot of a shopping centre when they encountered a group of three suspected ETA members.

Two of the suspects, Asier Bengoa Lopez de Armentia and Soaia Sanchez Iturregi were arrested and charged days later.—Reuters