Car bomb injures 46 at Spanish police barracks
SPAIN: A car bomb exploded outside a Civil Guard barracks in the
northern Spanish city of Burgos early on Wednesday, slightly injuring 46
people, an emergency services spokesman said.
Part of the barracks facade collapsed into the street when the bomb
went off around 4.30 a.m. (0230 GMT). A spokeswoman for the Civil Guard,
Spain’s paramilitary police force, said the attack was probably carried
out by Basque separatist rebels ETA.
Most of the injuries were cuts and bruises and no one was in serious
condition, although 38 had been transferred to hospital in the historic
cathedral town, according to the emergency services spokesman.
“All the windows are broken. It’s very damaged so it’s almost a
miracle no one was hurt more seriously,” he said, adding that the
barracks had been evacuated and fire fighters were going through the
building. ETA is held responsible for killing more than 800 people in
the past 40 years in a campaign to carve out an independent Basque
homeland in northern Spain and southern France. It typically uses
shootings and car bombs, often parked outside police and army barracks.
The most recent killing blamed on the group was on June 19, when a
police inspector died in a booby-trapped car in the northern city of
Bilbao.
The organisation is under pressure to show it can still mount attacks
despite having been weakened by a series of arrests including that of
its suspected top commander, Jurdan Martitegi, in April. His capture
brought to four the number of commanders caught in less than a year.
- MADRID, Wednesday, Reuters
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