Jaime Reina/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A civil guard on duty in front of a police installation where a bomb exploded on Thursday, killing two, on the Spanish island of Majorca.
A civil guard on duty in front of a police installation where a bomb exploded on Thursday, killing two, on the Spanish island of Majorca.
By VICTORIA BURNETT
Published: July 30, 2009
Published: July 30, 2009
MADRID — A bomb that killed two police officers on the Spanish resort island of Majorca on Thursday, just days before the king and queen were to arrive, appeared to be the second attack in two days by the violent Basque separatist group ETA.
All ports of entry were closed temporarily while the police hunted for suspects, throwing the island’s busy airport into chaos at the height of the tourist season. The police cleared streets around the site of the bombing, and nearby beaches, normally crowded, were deserted.
The bomb exploded about 2 p.m., just as the officers were getting into a car outside a police building in the coastal town of Palma Nova, about nine miles from the main city of Palma. The victims, Diego Salva Lezaun, 27, and Carlos Saénz de Tejada García, 28, were members of the civil guard, a rural police force.
An amateur video broadcast by Sky News showed bright flames leaping from the charred wreck of the car. El Pais newspaper reported that body parts and a car seat had been hurled into a tree.
Ramón Sacias, the central government’s representative in the island chain, blamed ETA for the explosion. “ETA are a bunch of heartless murderers who are increasingly desperate, and that desperation makes them more dangerous,” he said in an interview with Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.
ETA, which is considered a terrorist group by the State Department and the European Union, marks its 50th anniversary on Friday. It has killed more than 825 people in its violent campaign for an independent Basque homeland.
Majorca, an island of picturesque coves and surrounded by sparkling sea, is the largest of the four Balearic Islands and one of Spain’s most popular holiday destinations, drawing more than 9 million tourists a year. The bombing could be another blow to an economy already suffering from the slow-down in tourism due to the economic crisis.
King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia were scheduled to arrive Saturday for their annual visit, and several other members of the royal family were already there. A spokesman said there were no plans to cancel the visit.
The authorities also blame ETA for another bomb attack on the civil guard only 36 hours earlier. That explosion, outside a police barracks in the northern Spanish city of Burgos, lightly injured nearly 60 people, including six children.
The group often calls in a warning to emergency services before detonating bombs, but did not do so in either of the attacks this week.
ETA has come under pressure over the past year from Spanish and French police, who have arrested several of its political and military leaders. Analysts say the so-called nationalist left, which includes members of ETA and hard line political supporters, is also divided between those who want to continue the armed struggle and those who want to join mainstream politics.
Some analysts suggested that the attacks were meant to send a message that ETA remained capable of deadly operations. Teo Santos, who for decades worked in the Basque police and is now a security analyst, said the Majorca attack may have been intended to emphasize ETA’s logistical capacity.
“There have been many media reports saying that ETA is doing badly,” he said by telephone. “There are divisions within ETA and the nationalist left.”
“Whenever that kind of debate occurs, ETA raises the level of violence,” he said by telephone.
Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero told journalists in a televised news conference late Thursday the attackers would be caught.
“They have no possibility of hiding,” he said. “They cannot escape, they cannot elude the hands of justice.”
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