Basque border, Spain
Spanish and French police nabbed Spain’s two most wanted criminals this week in a massive joint raid on the Basque separatist group ETA. Mikel Albizu Iriarte, ETA’s political leader, was arrested along with his companion, Soledád Iparraguirre, a military operative and the group’s highest-ranking woman. Police found large stockpiles of weapons, including rocket launchers, explosives, and Russian-made surface-to-air missiles. “This was an extremely important operation, one that we can certainly describe as historic,” said Spanish Interior Minister José Antonio Alonso. ETA has killed some 800 people in Spain over three decades of bombings and assassinations in the fight for an independent Basque state.
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