Alleged ETA military chief, three others held in France

Mar 11, 2011, 7:13 GMT

Madrid - The alleged military chief of the armed Basque separatist group ETA has been captured in northern France, Spanish police sources said.

Alejandro Zobaran Arriola alias Xarla, 29, was detained with three other ETA suspects in Beaulencourt near the Belgian border on Thursday evening.

Spanish radio, citing the Interior Ministry, had initially reported the capture of the suspects late Thursday.

Finger print analysis would be done to confirm Zobaran's identity, the police sources said.

The identities of the three others were not immediately known. Police suspected that they had important positions within ETA's logistical structure that supplies the group with weapons, explosives and infrastructure.

The four were staying at a country house whose owner began suspecting that their identity documents were false, media reported. The house owner informed police, who kept watch over the suspects for several days before arresting them.

Police searched their lodgings and two cars with fake registration plates.

If Zobaran's identity and role in ETA are confirmed, he would be the sixth ETA military leader captured since May 2008.

The constant crackdowns on the group have decimated it, contributing to its decision to declare a ceasefire in September. ETA then reinforced the ceasefire in January, making it 'permanent.'

The Spanish government, however, distrusts ETA, refuses to enter talks with it and insists on its unconditional surrender.

The Spanish judiciary has clamped down also on ETA's political wing, banning the radical separatist party Batasuna in 2003.

Politicians linked to Batasuna recently launched a new party, Sortu, which took the unprecedented step of distancing itself from ETA's violent tactics.

On Thursday, Sortu condemned ETA's alleged plans to kill Basque regional Prime Minister Patxi Lopez in 2010, but that failed to convince the government that the party should be legalized.

Sortu would 'have difficulties' as long as ETA 'stayed alive,' Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said.

ETA has not carried out significant attacks in Spain since August 2009. The group, which has killed about 850 people since 1968, is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and by the United States.

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