A Spanish army general who was critically hurt in an ETA bomb attack last month died today from his injuries, the defence ministry said.
General Justo Oreja Pedraza, 62, sustained burns to 50 per cent of his body following the explosion, on June 28, of a remote-controlled device hidden in a backpack on a parked bicycle near his home in central Madrid.
Mr Oreja, the highest-ranking military person to be killed by ETA since 1994, died from "multiple organ failure due to multiple complications," La Paz hospital in Madrid said.
The general's funeral - which Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar will attend - will take place later today, where he is to receive a posthumous grand cross of military merit.
Mr Oreja leaves behind a wife and four children.
Meanwhile the Basque news agency Vasco Press reported that ETA claimed responsibility for a bomb and four petrol bomb attacks in the capital overnight.
The targets were police, a trade union official, a radio station and an insurance company.
ETA officials have described the attacks as part of "a day of battle" in homage to activist Olaia Castresana, 20, who was blown up by her own bomb on Tuesday in the seaside resort of Torrevieja, near Alicante.
The organization is waging a violent battle for an independent homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France.
AFP