Spain arrests 'Eta police killer'

Juan Manuel Inciarte carried out his alleged killing spree in the 1980s

A suspected member of the Basque separatist group Eta has been arrested at Madrid airport after being deported from Mexico.

Juan Manuel Inciarte, 55, is suspected of having killed six people - five of them policeman, the sixth the pregnant wife of one of the officers.

Mr Inciarte had been living in Mexico illegally, officials said.

Eta is blamed for more than 820 deaths during its campaign for an independent homeland in Spain's Basque region.

Last week was the 50th anniversary of Eta's founding. The group was blamed for two attacks in the run-up to the anniversary.

The first was a massive bomb attack on a Civil Guards barracks in Burgos, northern Spain, that destroyed some of the building, injured dozens of people, but caused no fatalities.

The second was a bomb attack on a Civil Guards building on the island of Majorca, which killed two officers.

There have been no arrests in connection with those attacks.

1980s campaign

Mr Inciarte had reportedly been identified by an anonymous informant in Mexico City.

The Mexican authorities then put him on a plane to Spain, where the police were waiting.

In a detailed statement, Spain's interior ministry said the suspect was wanted in connection with the murders of five police officers and a pregnant woman between 1983 and 1985.

He was also wanted over two further attacks on police stations.

All the attacks were attributed to Eta at the height of the group's campaign of violence.

A warrant was issued for Mr Inciarte's arrest in 1991, though by then he was thought to be living in Nicaragua.

Eta called a short-lived ceasefire in 2006, but broke it in December of that year with a fatal car bomb attack at Madrid airport.