ETA suspects held in Spain, may have planned attacks

Spanish police arrested four suspected members of Basque separatist guerrilla group ETA on Saturday, two of whom may have been planning an attack on Basque police, the government said. The four - named as Yosune Ona, 27, Asier Mardones, 24, Atxarte Navarro, 27, and Aritz Lopez, 23 - were detained in the northern Basque region, an Interior Ministry statement said. Ona and Mardones, who were armed when they were arrested, are believed to be linked to an ETA shootout with police last September, the statement said, adding that they were attempting to reform an ETA cell in the Vizcaya region that police broke up last year. ETA, which the United States and European Union consider a terrorist organisation, has killed nearly 850 people since 1968 in a bombing and shooting campaign for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France. Last September, members of the Basque regional police force were met with shotgun fire when they responded to reports of a road accident near the northern town of Lagran.