Global

Basque separatists ETA announce ceasefire - Gara

MADRID (Reuters) - Basque rebels ETA have decided to no longer carry out armed attacks, Basque-language newspaper Gara said on its website on Sunday.

Gara did not make clear whether the cease-fire was permanent or temporary.

Interior ministry officials declined to comment.

ETA has been responsible for around 850 deaths in a four-decade fight to carve out an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France, but the organisation has been crippled by the arrest of leading members in recent years.

The group's leader was caught in February in northern France along with two senior ETA members.

ETA declared a permanent cease-fire in March 2006, but Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called off the peace process later that year after the group detonated a car bomb at Madrid airport that killed two Ecuadorians.

(Reporting by Sonya Dowsett; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)

WhatsAppFacebookFacebookTwitterTwitterLinkedinLinkedinBeloudBeloudBluesky