Car bomb explodes in Spain

Car bomb explodes in Spain, dozens injured

AP – Emergency workers are seen walking through the rubble after a car bomb, blamed on Basque separatist group …

By ISRAEL LOPEZ, Associated Press Writer Israel Lopez, Associated Press Writer

BURGOS, Spain – A powerful car bomb exploded early Wednesday outside a barracks housing police officers
and their families in this northern Spanish city, slightly injuring 46
people and causing major damage in the area. The attack was blamed on
Basque separatist group ETA.
Most of the
injuries from the blast were from flying glass, and 38 of the wounded
were treated in hospitals, regional ministry representative Miguel
Alejo said. Many of the injured were Civil Guard police officers and
family members.
The bomb detonated around 4:00
a.m. (0200 GMT, 10 p.m. EDT Tuesday) and left a crater that had filled
with water from broken underground pipes, Alejo said.
"The
car used to cause the explosion has been displaced some 70 meters (230
feet) so that gives you an idea of the power of the blast," he said.
Police and emergency services
did not receive any warning that a bomb had been planted, but the
explosion had the hallmarks of an ETA attack, Alejo said. It was not
immediately clear how many people were in the building at the time.
Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba was rushing to the scene, his office said.
ETA,
which has killed more than 825 people since it launched a campaign in
1968 for an independent homeland in Basque region of northern Spain,
typically phones in warnings that a bomb is about to explode giving
time to authorities to evacuate the area.
The last attack blamed on the group was July 10 when a bomb exploded outside an office of the Spanish prime minister's party in the Basque town of Durango, causing significant damage but no injuries.
The
group's last fatal attack took place June 19, when a bomb attached to
the underside of a car killed a Spanish police detective whose job was
to investigate ETA.
Television images Wednesday
showed considerable damage to a 14-story barracks building in Burgos
and many residential dwellings around it with windows and some walls
blown in by the power of the explosion.
It is common for members of the paramilitary Civil Guard police force to live in barracks with their spouses and children.
The force is chiefly in charge of policing rural areas and guarding official buildings.
In
an attack on May 14, 2008, ETA killed a Civil Guard officer in a car
bombing outside a barracks in the Basque town of Legutiano. There were
29 people in the building at the time.
Burgos is an important regional capital and contains a historic city center with important tourist attractions.
ETA,
whose name is a Basque-language acronym for Basque Homeland and
Freedom, had declared what it called a permanent cease-fire in 2006,
but reverted to violence within months after peace talks with the Spanish government went nowhere.
Dozens of alleged members of the organization have been arrested in recent years in Spain and France including several of its supposed leaders.

Espanhois NAO SAO de brandos costumes, NEM PANHONHAS.