ETA timeline

A timeline of ETA, the Basque separatist movement blamed by Spanish officials for Thursday's train bombings in Madrid.

• 1959 - Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, known as ETA, or Basque Homeland and Freedom, founded during dictatorship of General Francisco Franco to fight for Basque self-determination.
• 1968 - ETA carries out first planned killing: victim is Meliton Manzanas, police chief in Basque city San Sebastian.
• 1973 - Franco’s Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco killed when car passes over explosives planted by ETA in Madrid.
• 1980 - ETA’s bloodiest year, nearly 100 killed, despite Spain’s recent return to democracy.
• September 1985 - First ETA car bomb in Madrid. American tourist killed while jogging; 16 Civil Guards wounded.
• July 1986 - Twelve Civil Guards are killed in Madrid and 50 injured. Juan Manuel Soares, a repentant Basque separatist is sentenced to 1,401 years in jail in April 2000 for the killings.
• June 1987 - ETA’s bloodiest attack so far - 21 shoppers killed when bomb hits Barcelona supermarket. ETA apologizes for “mistake.”
• April 1995 - Popular Party opposition leader Jose Maria Aznar, later to become prime minister, is target of ETA car bomb. Saved by vehicle’s armor plating.
• August, 1995 - Police foil ETA plot to kill King Juan Carlos.
• July 1997 - Basque town councilor Miguel Angel Blanco kidnapped and killed. Six million people demonstrate.
• September 1998 - ETA announces truce.
• June 1999 - Government says it held talks with ETA.
• Nov. 28, 1999 - ETA announces cease-fire to end on Dec 3.
• Feb 22, 2000 - Car bombing in Vitoria kills local Socialist politician Fernando Buesa and his bodyguard, Jorge Diez.
• Sept. 15, 2000 - French police arrest Ignacio Gracia Arregui, alias Inaki of Renteria, alleged top ETA leader.
• Nov. 21, 2000 - Former Socialist health minister Ernest Lluch is shot dead in Barcelona. Nearly one million demonstrate.
• Feb. 22, 2001 - A car explodes killing two people and injuring four in San Sebastian. Hours later French police capture suspected ETA military chief in French town of Anglet.
• Nov. 6, 2001 - A car bomb explodes in Madrid, injuring 95 but missing a senior civil servant believed to have been its target. Two suspected ETA members are arrested.
• Nov. 23, 2001 - Two police officers in Beasain, south of San Sebastian, are killed. Ana Isabel Arostegi is the first female officer in the Basque police force to be killed by ETA.
• March 4, 2002 - The Bilbao stock exchange is evacuated after a telephoned bomb threat in the name of ETA. Police defuse the bomb.
• May 1, 2002 - Car bomb explodes near Madrid soccer stadium hours before the European Champions League semi-final match. Emergency officials say 17 people were treated for injuries or shock.
• June 21, 2002 - Three car bombs explode in a single day in the towns of Fuengirola, Marbella and Zaragoza ahead of a two-day summit of European Union leaders in Seville. Seven are injured.
• Dec. 4, 2003 - French police arrest Ibon Fernandez Iradia, a suspected ETA military commander who escaped from custody in France almost a year before.
• Feb. 18, 2004 - ETA calls a truce in the Spanish region of Catalonia, less than a month before general elections.
• Feb 29, 2004 - Spanish police avert a possible massacre by intercepting a van carrying more than 1,100 lbs of explosives that ETA planned to detonate in Madrid.
• March 11, 2004 --At least 173 people are killed in bomb attacks at Madrid stations in packed morning rush hour which Spanish ministers say bear the hallmarks of ETA.

SOURCE: Reuters

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