This page is a list of attacks undertaken (or believed to have been undertaken) by Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), a paramilitary and armed Basque separatist movement, mainly in Spain. The list includes attacks by all the branches and divisions that ETA had through its history, as well as some kale borroka attacks. Important failed attacks are also included.
Since 1961, ETA conducted many attacks against a variety of targets. Because these attacks number in the hundreds over a span of more than 45 years, not all can be included here. This incomplete list may include attacks noted for being the first of their kind made by the organization, first in a particular area, notability of targets, large number of victims, unique method of attack, or other historic significance. The list is of those attacks described above between 1961 and 2011.
ETA deaths by status of victim [1] | |||
---|---|---|---|
Status | No. | ||
Civilian | 343 | ||
Members of security forces | 486 | ||
of whom: | |||
Guardia Civil | 203 | ||
Cuerpo Nacional de Policía | 146 | ||
Spanish Army | 98 | ||
Policia Municipal | 24 | ||
Ertzaintza | 13 | ||
Mossos d'Esquadra | 1 | ||
French National Police | 1 | ||
Total | |||
829 people killed |
The number of people killed by ETA is sometimes disputed. The Spanish Interior Ministry, the Basque government, and major news agencies state that 829 people were killed in ETA attacks. Some victims' organizations such as the Asociación de Víctimas del Terrorismo and the Colectivo de Víctimas del Terrorismo en el País Vasco place the death toll of ETA's victims at 952, including in the list Iberian Revolutionary Liberation Directory's victim [2] [3] [4] [5] Begoña Urroz (regarded by some sources as ETA's first victim) [6] and several unresolved attacks, and the Hotel Corona de Aragón fire. [7]
From 1968 until 2002, there were more than 3,300 ETA attacks, which also left more than 2,000 people injured. [8]
The Ertzaintza is the autonomous police force for the Basque Country, largely replacing the Spanish Policía Nacional and Guardia Civil. An Ertzaintza member is called an ertzaina.
GAL were death squads illegally established by officials of the Spanish government to fight against ETA, the principal Basque separatist terrorist group. They were active from 1983 to 1987 under Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)-led governments.
Iraultza was a small Basque militant armed group of leftist tendency, active between 1982 and 1996 as a response to the suppression of the Basque resistance movement. It was thought to be a group of less than 50 people based in Bilbao, largely focused on the destruction of property, particularly those of American multinational corporations and against other smaller Spanish companies involved in labor disputes, in support of Workers' self-management and mobilization, although one of its attacks was responsible for the death of one individual and several for minor injuries of others. According to newspaper El País it was thought to be responsible for over 210 attacks during its existence.
The Association of Victims of Terrorism is a Spanish association created in 1981 by victims of terrorist attacks. Its members include those injured by ETA, GRAPO, the Provisional Irish Republican Army and Al Qaeda, as well as their families. It does not, however, include victims of extreme right Spanish groups such as GAL, Warriors of Christ the King and others. Its membership exceeds 6,000.
On 30 December 2006, a van bomb exploded in the Terminal 4 parking area at the Madrid–Barajas Airport in Spain, killing two and injuring 52. On 9 January 2007, the Basque nationalist and separatist organisation ETA claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack, one of the most powerful carried out by ETA, damaged the airport terminal and destroyed the entire parking structure. The bombing ended a nine-month ceasefire declared by the armed organisation and prompted the government to halt plans for negotiations with the organisation. Despite the attack, ETA claimed that the ceasefire was still in place and regretted the death of civilians. The organisation eventually announced the end of the ceasefire in June 2007.
The controversy regarding the handling and representation of the Madrid train bombings by the government arose with Spain's two main political parties, Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and Partido Popular (PP), accusing each other of concealing or distorting evidence for electoral reasons.
ETA's 2006 "permanent ceasefire" was the period spanning between 24 March and 30 December 2006 during which, following an ETA communiqué, the Spanish government, led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero on one side, and the militant group on the other, engaged in talks as a means to agree on a formula to voluntarily disband the latter. It was terminated as a result of the 2006 Madrid Barajas International Airport bombing.
Jurdan Martitegi Lizaso is a member of the armed Basque nationalist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). He is best known as the head of the military/commando unit of the group since late 2008 until April 18, 2009, when he was arrested by French police. He is considered to be one of the most dangerous members of ETA, considered a terrorist organization by the European Union, with police describing him as "extremely violent".
The 2009 Palma Nova bombing occurred on 30 July 2009, when a limpet bomb went off outside a Civil Guard barracks in the town of Palma Nova, Majorca, Spain. The bomb was placed under a patrol car and two Civil Guard officers died as a result of the explosion. A second device was found under another Civil Guard vehicle at nearby barracks and safely exploded by police. On 9 August, the Basque nationalist and separatist organisation ETA claimed responsibility for the attack, while four other bombs exploded around restaurants and shopping centres in Palma, Majorca, causing no injuries.
Resistência Galega, sometimes referred to as REGA, is the term used by a series of left-wing and Galician separatist organisations and individuals to claim attacks in Galicia. The term was first used in 2005 when a manifesto named Manifesto da Resistência Galega appeared on the Internet. Since then, Resistência Galega has carried out dozens of attacks against political party offices and banks across Galicia.
A van bomb went off on 19 May 2008 outside a boat club in the town of Getxo, Biscay in the Basque Country, Spain. The attack caused serious damage to the club, as well as nearby buildings and structures. No one was killed or injured after a warning call from the Basque separatist organisation ETA. On 31 May, the organisation claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Arkaitz Goikoetxea Basabe is a member of the Basque separatist organisation ETA. He began his violent activity at the age of 15 as a member of the street violence groups known as kale borroka. He was arrested several times between 2001 and 2002, and joined ETA in 2005.
A car bomb attack was carried out by the Basque separatist organisation ETA on 11 December 1987. A vehicle containing 250 kilograms (550 lb) of ammonal was parked beside the main Guardia Civil barrack headquarter in the city of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain; its subsequent explosion killed 11 people, including 5 children. Another 88 people were injured, the majority of them civilians.
The July 1979 Madrid bombings were a series of bomb attacks carried out by ETA political-military (ETA-pm), a faction of the armed Basque separatist group ETA. The attacks, consisting of coordinated bombings in Barajas Airport and the train stations of Atocha and Chamartín, killed 7 people and injured a further 100. The bombings occurred a day after two attacks in Bilbao and San Sebastian, with both attacks killing two people.
The September 1982 Rentería attack was an ambush by the Basque separatist organisation ETA which occurred on 14 September 1982 on the motorway near the Basque town of Errenteria in Guipuzkoa. The targets were several national police officers, four of whom were killed in the attack, with the fifth seriously injured. The attack was ETA's deadliest of 1982.
A car bombing was carried out by the Basque separatist organisation ETA on 16 September 1991 in the town of Mutxamel near Alicante. The target was the Civil Guard barracks in the town. However the bomb initially failed to explode near its target. The police treated the car as an abandoned vehicle, not realising that it contained a bomb and while being towed away, the car bomb exploded, killing two police officers and the civilian towing the car away. The bombing was the deadliest of the 40 attacks which ETA carried out in the Province of Alicante between 1979 and 2004.
A car bombing was carried out by the armed Basque separatist group ETA in Sabadell, Catalonia, Spain on 8 December 1990.
The murder of Lasa and Zabala was one of the first acts carried out by the GAL, a state sponsored death squad, Basques José Antonio Lasa and José Ignacio Zabala were kidnapped, tortured and executed in 1983.
The Alianza Apostólica Anticomunista was a Spanish far-right paramilitary organisation active from 1976 to 1983, primarily in the southern Basque Country but also in the French Basque Country and Barcelona. A June 2010 report by the Office for Victims of Terrorism of the Basque Government attributed eight murders with 66 deathly victims to the group and linked it to the National Police Corps, SECED and the Civil Guard. The group attacked the satirical magazine El Papus in Barcelona, killing one person and injuring 17.
Maria Angeles Beitialarrangoitia Lizarralde is a Basque journalist and politician. She was previously a member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain and Basque Parliament, and mayor of Hernani.