Spain arrests eight Eta suspects

Eight suspected members of Basque separatist movement, Eta, have been arrested, Spanish police say.

The arrests took place in the early hours of Tuesday morning around the northern city of Bilbao.

Spanish police say those detained belong to one of the armed group's most active commando cells.

Eta is blamed for the deaths of more than 820 people in its 40-year campaign for an independent Basque nation. The group ended its ceasefire in June 2007.

The arrests follow a series of blasts on Sunday, when four bombs exploded in beach resorts on the country's northern coastline.

Fingerprint clues

No-one was injured by the bombs, which were detonated after a telephone warning.

The BBC's Danny Wood, in Madrid, says the bombs were seen as the beginning of the organisation's summer bombing campaign, which often targets holiday resorts.

One of those seized in Tuesday's arrests is Arkaitz Goikoetxea, allegedly the leader of the cell blamed for nearly a dozen recent attacks, including one on a civil guard barracks on 14 May in which an officer was killed.

Fingerprints and DNA found on a balaclava inside a van used by the suspects to flee from the barracks bombing was reported to be key to these arrests.

The police, our correspondent says, blame these suspects for most of the organisation's attacks since the group ended its ceasefire a year ago.

Politicians welcomed the arrests though the interior ministry did not immediately confirm them. Spain's interior minister is expected to make a statement later.

Rodolfo Ares, a leader of the Basque Socialist Party, said: "This is a special morning because today we feel a little bit more free because several terrorists have been arrested," Reuters reports.