French police arrest alleged ETA chief
French police arrested the alleged military leader of the banned Basque separatist group ETA today, police said.
Gorka Palacio Alday was arrested near Pau, in the southwest.
He is thought to have taken command of ETA’s armed operations after French police detained another of the group’s alleged military leaders, Juan Ibon Fernandez de Iradi, a year ago, police said.
ETA translates as Basque Homeland and Freedom.
It is blamed in Spain for more than 800 killings since the late 1960s with a campaign of bombings and shootings aimed at carving an independent Basque homeland out of territory straddling northern Spain and southwest France.
Three other people, described by French police as less important alleged members of ETA, were also arrested with Alday in the small village of Lons, near Pau.
French anti-terrorism officers and judicial police carried out the arrests.
