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Spain on maximum alert for 50th anniversary of ETA

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-07-31 15:52

Smoke and flames rise from a car following an explosion in the Palmanova beach area, southwest of the island's capital, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on Thursday, July 30, 2009. [Agencies]

MADRID: Spain's security forces are on maximum alert for the 50th anniversary of the armed Basque group ETA, blamed for bombings that killed two police officers and injured scores of people this week.

Related readings:  Bomb kills 2 Spanish police on Mallorca  Blast injures 46 in Spain  Car bomb explodes in Spain, dozens injured  ETA military chief nailed: Spain Spain's separatist ETA leader arrested in France

ETA was founded on July 31, 1959, and has killed more than 825 people since beginning its violent campaign for an independent Basque state in 1968.

Authorities blame ETA for two recent attacks — a deadly explosion near a police barracks on Mallorca island Thursday and a car bomb in northern Burgos city Wednesday.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Thursday that security forces are ordered "to be on maximum alert ... to increase even more their efforts and to protect themselves from these vile murderers."