Fears of summer bombings as Eta steps up attacks

• Security services say resorts may be targeted
• Move designed to pressure Zapatero for peace deal

Graham Keeley in Barcelona
The Guardian

Spanish security services fear the Basque separatist group Eta is planning a summer campaign of violence which could include attacks on tourist resorts popular with Britons.

Concerns were raised after the assassination of a former politician and the car bombing of a police station over the past fortnight, suggesting Eta is stepping up its attacks.

Despite the arrest of key members which has badly depleted Eta, security forces say Eta appears determined to continue killing to pressure the Spanish prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, to broker a peace deal.

On Friday, a car bomb charged with 70kg (154lb) of explosives went off outside a police station in Calahorra, La Rioja, northern Spain.

After a phone warning to police from a man claiming to be from Eta, the area was evacuated.

The bomb exploded as people filled the city for a Good Friday procession. One officer suffered light injuries.

Two weeks ago, former Socialist councillor Isaías Carrasco, a 42-year-old father of three, was shot dead in front of his family in Mondragon, in northern Spain. The killing, which came just three days before the Spanish general election, led his teenage daughter Sandra to call on voters to cast their ballots and defy the terrorists.

Zapatero was returned to power with a higher share of the vote but without an absolute majority, which would have increased his power to solve the Basque question.

Anti-terrorist police believe Eta's next target may be Zapatero himself, whose investiture will take place next month. If Eta cannot penetrate the high-security surrounding the occasion in Madrid, they may opt to attack a softer target.

Eta has in the past targeted resorts popular with Britons during the summer. In 2003, the group bombed areas in Alicante and Benidorm, injuring 13 people.

A security source said: "We now believe Eta will start a prolonged campaign to put Zapatero under pressure."

Meanwhile, Zapatero is seeking an all-party pact against Eta which would join the conservative opposition Popular party and the Basque Nationalist party with the ruling Socialists.

In an effort to move away from the bitter political wrangling which typified any mention of Eta in the past four years, the Socialist leader will seek international cooperation to find a solution to a problem which has dogged Spain for 40 years.

Zapatero, who sought advice from Tony Blair over his experiences in Northern Ireland, wants to try to isolate hardline foreign support for Eta.

Representatives of the government failed in peace talks with Eta during Zapatero's first term in office. But the rightwing Popular party, suspicious of the Socialists for holding talks with Eta, seem unlikely to support Zapatero's plan.

Zapatero began peace talks with Eta after it declared a unilateral truce in March 2006. But Eta grew frustrated with a lack of concessions and reverted to violence with a car bombing at a Madrid airport car park in December 2006 that killed two people sleeping in their vehicles.

The group insisted the deaths were unintended and that the truce still stood. However, it declared an end to the ceasefire in June 2007. Eta has since carried out more than a dozen minor bombings. Eta members shot dead two undercover Spanish police officers in southern France in December.