Spain arrests 10 for suspected links to ETA

Spanish police arrested 10 people early Tuesday for suspected links to the outlawed Basque separatist group ETA, just a week after the group's latest cease-fire announcement, an interior ministry statement said.

The Spanish government - wary of ETA's unilateral cease-fire because the armed militants have broken previous cease-fires - has said it would not cease police operations against the group blamed for 800 deaths in its long fight for Basque independence.

Nine of the pre-dawn arrests on Tuesday came in Navarra, the northern region with Basque roots whose capital is Pamplona, the statement said. The other arrest was in the nearby Basque province of Alava.

Eight men and two women were arrested. Six of the suspects are thought to be involved with Ekin, a shadowy group which Spain's National Court in 2007 ruled was "part of the heart" of ETA and not a mere satellite.

Spanish media reports said police believe the suspects were trying to rebuild Ekin, whose tasks include passing directives from ETA's leadership to a string of shadowy support groups.

The other four suspects, including the two women, are suspected of involvement in pro-ETA propaganda in a group called Askatasuna, also in Navarra province, the statement said.

ETA on January 10 beefed up its cease-fire in effect since last September, saying it would now be "permanent, general and verifiable."

But that fell short of demands by the Socialist government and most opposition parties that ETA unconditionally declare a permanent end to the violence and commitment to lay down its arms.

On January 11, police arrested a suspected top computer programmer for ETA in France. He is accused of playing a key role in the group's logistics by designing the computer codes that operatives used to secretly communicate, Spain's Interior Ministry said on Jan. 11.

ETA is listed as a terrorist group by United States and the European Union.

ETA declared a "permanent" cease-fire in March 2006, but while the government was exploring a peace process, an ETA car bomb at Madrid's airport in December 2006 killed two men and caused extensive damage to the airport's newest terminal.

Since then, the government and opposition parties have been generally united in their stance that further ETA cease-fires would be insufficient and that the only statement needed was ETA's commitment to give up its fight.

There are about 800 ETA convicts or suspects in prisons in Spain and in France, ETA's traditional rearguard base, the Spanish government has said.