Two police officers were shot dead last night near in Beasain, in the Basque province of Guip·zcoa, in an attack attributed to the Basque pro-independence group ETA.
The killings indicate a serious escalation of ETA's campaign against the Ertzainza, the police force controlled by the Basque regional government. This administration is in the hands of moderate Basque nationalists, who mostly share ETA's aspiration for Basque self-determination, but are opposed to its violent methods.
Ana Arostegi (34), a mother of three, died at the scene of the attack. Her 32-year-old male colleague, who has not been named, died in hospital after being shot in the neck.
Police said that a man and woman started shooting before police could return fire. The two were attacked while carrying out a routine traffic patrol when a man and a woman opened fire on the officers.
The attack comes after a shooting on Tuesday when two other Ertzainza officers were wounded by a bomb explosion in the nearby city of Bilbao.
ETA has rarely deliberately targeted ordinary members of the Ertzainza in the past. Most of the 13 victims from the force were either senior officers, or killed in spontaneous shootouts, or attacks aimed at other targets. The majority of the 800-plus victims of ETA's terrorism have been members of the Spanish security forces, controlled by the central government in Madrid.
ETA's relations with the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), the majority partner in the powerful Basque autonomous government, have see-sawed over the last few years, from political alliance during ETA's 1998-9 ceasefire, to bitter hostility since its return to violence.
Yesterday's escalation is probably aimed at pushing the PNV towards closer anti-terrorist co-operation with the Madrid government, in the hope of alienating its more nationalist supporters.