Spanish authorities have blamed Basque separatist group ETA for detonating a car bomb in Madrid.The explosive was placed in an auto in Madrid's business district and may have targeted a transportation firm working on a high-speed rail line. The bomb has not claimed any fatalities yet has caused some extensive material damage. The Red Cross organized a rapid evacuation before the explosion and after receiving a telephone warning ahead of the blast.
If ETA was behind the bombing then that would signal the group’s first attack on the Spanish capital in about two years.
Today’s bombing comes hours after two Basque political parties supposedly tied to ETA were banned from local elections:
Spain's supreme court backed Sunday a government request to bar two Basque pro-independence parties from regional elections next month, judicial sources said…Image- AFP
The government and prosecutors charged that Democracy Three Million (D3M) and Askatasuna have links to the armed Basque separatist group ETA and its political arm Batasuna, which the court outlawed in 2003.
Anti-terrorist Judge Baltasar Garzon is to hand down a separate decision Tuesday on whether to suspend the parties' political activities.
Online Sources- AFP, Guardian UK, CNN, UPI, Times Online
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