A brief history of the organisation
1959 - Eta, or Basque Homeland and Freedom, founded during the 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.
Sept 1985 - First Eta car bomb in Madrid. American tourist killed while jogging, 16 civil guards wounded.
July 1986 - Twelve civil guards 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 apologises 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 armour plating.
Sept 1998 - Eta announces truce.
June 1999 - Government says it held talks with Eta.
Nov 1999 - Eta announces ceasefire to end on December 3rd.
Nov 2000 - Former Socialist health minister Ernest Lluch shot dead in Barcelona. Nearly a million demonstrate.
Dec 2003 - Police say they foil an attempt by Eta to blow up a train in a main Madrid station on Christmas Eve.
March 2004 - Train bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people, were initially blamed by the then-ruling Popular Party on Eta before it emerged that Islamist fundamentalists were behind the blasts. However, revolted Spaniards turned ever further from the use of violence.
Eta calls for dialogue with Spain's incoming socialist government but pledges to maintain its armed campaign.
Oct 2004 - New socialist prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero appeals to Eta to give up the fight following the arrest of its suspected leader. Eta was dealt a "harsh blow" by the arrest of 21 Eta suspects including alleged leader Mikel Albisu Iriarte, alias "Mikel Antza".
Feb 2005 - Spain's parliament rejects Basque premier Juan Jose Ibarretxe's plan for virtual Basque independence.
May 2005 - Spain's High Court sentences two Eta members to 2,775 years each in prison for the Christmas 2003 plot. Spain's parliament gives the government permission to open peace talks with Eta if the group lays down its arms.
March 2006 - Eta claims responsibility for nine attacks between February and March.
March 22nd, 2006 - Eta declares a permanent ceasefire, to begin on March 24th.