The suspected military leader of Basque separatist rebel group Eta has been arrested in southwestern France, the French interior ministry said today.
Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, known by his alias "Txeroki" or "Cherokee," was arrested in France's Pyrenean region, near the Spanish border, said the interior ministry statement.
The ministry said Aspiazu was suspected of having killed two Spanish civil guard in the French seaside town of Capbreton in December 2007. Spanish media have also cited security forces blaming Aspiazu for ordering the car bombing of Madrid airport in December 2006 that killed two people and wrecked peace talks with the Spanish government.
A woman suspected of being a member of Eta was also arrested. Her name was not released immediately.
Aspiazu faces trial in France for the Capbreton killings, but Madrid will ask that he be sent for trial in Spain on other charges, before being returned to serve any French sentence, a spokesman for Spain's State Prosecution Service said.
Aspiazu has been in charge of Eta's military operations for several years, during which time the group has staged dozens of attacks, security services believe.
He is also suspected of involvement in a failed plot to assassinate King Juan Carlos in Majorca in 2004, Spanish media reported.
"Today Eta is weaker, and Spanish democracy is stronger. Eta has not lost its capacity to attack, it hasn't lost its capacity to hurt, but it has been dealt a hard blow," Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told a news conference in Madrid.
"Having a man with Txeroki's record in police hands is going to save lives," Zapatero said.
"This arrest shows again the resolute commitment of the French police and gendarmerie in the fight against all forms of terrorism and illustrates once again the excellent co-operation between France and Spain in the fight against Basque terrorism," the French ministry statement added.
It was the latest in a series of captures of senior Eta figures and appeared to be the biggest blow to the organisation since Eta's then-top commander Francisco Javier Lopez Pena was arrested in the French city of Bordeaux in May.
The Spanish government says the group has been reduced to a relatively small number of fighters, although Eta has continued to carry out regular bombings.
The organisation, which began its fight for independence of the Basque Country in northern Spain in the late years of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco in the 1960s, has killed more than 800 people in four decades.
With the Basque country already enjoying considerable autonomy over areas including education and health and state support for the Basque language, the group has become increasingly isolated.
Polls indicate most Basques do not want independence and there have been media reports of disagreements between Eta and its outlawed political wing, Batasuna.
The group, whose initials stand for Euskadi ta Askatasuna, or Basque Homeland and Freedom in the Basque language, wants an independent nation spanning the seven Basque-speaking provinces of Spain and southwestern France.
It is considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States.
Agencies