Bomb explodes in northern Spain

A car bomb exploded early today near a civil guards barracks in Burgos, northern Spain, leaving some 30 people with minor injuries and causing heavy material damage, officials and media reports said. National radio said the blast occurred at around 4am local time and destroyed the facade of the building. It caused light injuries to about 30 people and a makeshift hospital had been set up nearby. The interior ministry was not immediately available for confirmation.

The radio network blamed the Basque separatist organisation ETA for the attack, citing the local prefect who said there had been no warning call, an ETA trademark, which has allowed authorities in the past to evacuate the area targeted. ETA has frequently targeted the civil guard in its 41-year campaign to carve a Basque homeland out of northern Spain and south-western France. The group, considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States, is blamed for the deaths of 825 people.

The last ETA bombing took place in early July when a bomb exploded in front of the office of the Basque Socialist party. *AFP