SPAIN: Four small bombs exploded at popular seaside resorts in Cantabria, northern Spain, yesterday after warning calls from the Basque separatist group Eta and an explosion outside a Barclays bank near Bilbao.
One woman was hurt by a flying stone and another treated for shock.
The attacks marked the beginning of Eta's traditional summer bombing campaign, which targets holiday resorts as part of the group's four-decade struggle for an independent Basque state.
Many European schools have begun their summer holidays and the attacks are meant to hurt tourism, one of Spain's biggest foreign income earners.
Spain's Socialist government says Eta has been severely weakened by a string of arrests, but the guerrilla group has staged more than a dozen attacks and killed two people since the beginning of the year.
Prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero broke off peace talks with Eta after the group killed two Ecuadorians in an attack on Madrid airport in December 2006, effectively ending a 10-month ceasefire.
The government condemned yesterday's attacks and reaffirmed its fight against the armed group that has killed more than 800 people since 1968, usually with car bombs or shootings.
The first Cantabria bomb exploded at about 12.15pm local time on a seafront promenade in Laredo, one of northern Spain's most popular holiday destinations, damaging the walkway, breaking windows and sending a 25m (80ft) plume of smoke into the air.
A second bomb went off about 40 minutes later next to the lifeguard tower on the beach at Noja, west of Laredo, causing a loud blast but no damage, media said.
The third explosion was next to a Red Cross post in Laredo, close to where the first device went off, officials said.
- (Reuters)