25 March 2008

MADRID - Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba warned Monday that Spain could face a long period of terror acts by the Basque separatist group ETA even though "the terrorists are conquered."

In remarks to the Cadena SER radio broadcaster, he said the country was threatened by a long-running cycle of terrorist violence.

"The terrorists are conquered and they know it, too," the minister said. "But they can still inflict suffering on us and they will also do so."

His comments came three days after ETA detonated a car bomb outside a police barracks in northern Spain, slightly wounding eight persons. Two weeks prior to that, ETA murdered a former local government politician of the Socialist party.

"The ETA knows that it is weakened. But it is still in a position to kill people," Rubalcaba warned. The group would carry out further attacks in order to try to compensate for its weakness.

[Copyright dpa 2008]