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Two arrested in raid on Basque separatist group Eta

Two suspected members of the Basque separatist group Eta have been arrested in France's Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in a raid supported by the Spanish Civil Guard.

The Basque separatist group Eta is blamed for the deaths of 829 people in a four-decade campaign of shootings and bombings.
The Basque separatist group Eta is blamed for the deaths of 829 people in a four-decade campaign of shootings and bombings. DR
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Iñaki Reta de Frutos is considered an explosives expert and logistics manager of the organisation, a source close to the investigation told French news agency AFP.

The other suspect, Xabier Goienetxea, was the subject of an arrest warrant issued in connection with the murder of a police sergeant in 2010.

Two people were injured in clashes that erupted between police and people protesting against the arrests during the raid on a house in Ossès early Wednesday.

Officials retrieved documents from the house in connection with the organisation, but no weapons or explosives were seized, the source said.

The raid is the latest by anti-terror police who in May uncovered an arms cache in the French west coast town of Biarritz.

Eta renounced armed struggle in 2011 but has refused to dissolve itself or surrender its arms.

It started a unilateral decommissioning process in 2014 but has refused to hand over its weapons to the regional government of the Spanish Basque country.

The group is blamed for the deaths of 829 people in a four-decade campaign of shootings and bombings to create an independent Basque homeland in an area of northern Spain and southern France.

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