Expatica news

ETA in tourist threat to KLM

17 February 2005

AMSTERDAM — Basque separatist group ETA has sent a letter to the offices of Dutch airline KLM in Spain threatening attacks on tourist targets, Spanish news agency EFE reported on Thursday.

Citing police sources, EFE claimed the letter, sent from Vitoria, in the Basque Country, said: “We cannot guarantee the security of foreign citizens”.

ETA has threatened attacks in the past against tourist attacks and recently sent a letter to several foreign embassies promising to bomb popular tourist sites across Spain.

But the letter to KLM represents a departure for the terrorist group and raises the spectre of attacks on airplanes.

Two ETA suspects were arrested by police in Valencia on Thursday. Police suspect they were intercepted shortly before a planned attack on the eve of Sunday’s European Union Constitution referendum.

Police also claim the suspects had two pistols, 25 cartridges of dynamite, a limpet mine, false documentation and a list of politicians, business figures and judges who were potential targets.

ETA has been blamed for more than 800 deaths since the 1960s in its battle to form an independent Basque homeland.

[Copyright Expatica News 2005]

Subject: Dutch + Spanish news