Police have arrested Eta's military chief, Spain's government said today, the third key leader of the armed Basque separatist group to be captured in under six months.
Three units of French paramilitary police arrested ETA commander Jurdan Martitegi in a Pyrenees mountain town late on Saturday afternoon, along with suspected ETA guerrilla cell leader Alexander Uriarte, Spain's Interior Ministry said.
In a joint operation, Spanish police arrested five men and one woman on Saturday in Spain's Basque country who are suspected members of Uriarte's cell.
Spanish interior minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said it was unclear whether Martitegi was Eta's overall leader, but his arrest showed the 40-year-old organisation faced a leadership crisis amid growing divisions on whether to lay down arms.
"Eta's internal organisation isn't going through the best of times," Rubalcaba told a media conference. "Its options are to give up because it decides to, or because we force it to."
Martitegi (28), was carrying a pistol but gave in without a fight, along with his suspected bodyguard and Uriarte, who were also armed.
Police seized three pistols, a stolen car, a small amount of explosives together with bomb making equipment and manuals during the raid in Montauriol, about 10 miles (16 kms) north of the Spanish border near the French city of Perpignan.
"It was a training course before they went into action," said Mr Rubalcaba, noting it was the second time in recent months police had dismantled an Eta cell before it could attack.
Martitegi took over command of Eta in December after French police captured previous military leader, Aitzol Iriondo, also known as Balak.
He had succeeded Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, better known as "Cherokee", who was captured near Spain's border in November.
"The unravelling of Eta is in large part due to the deep knowledge security forces have of its internal structure," Spanish newspaper El Paissaid in an editorial on Sunday.
Nearly 2 metres tall, strongly built and known as "the giant", Martitegi is regarded as one of the most dangerous men in Spain and France, where his photo appears on wanted posters in airports and train stations.
He had been on the run since July when Spanish police broke up Eta's main attack unit, known as the "Vizcaya cell", blamed for bombing numerous police stations and government buildings.
Eta is held responsible for the deaths of more than 800 people in its 40-year campaign of shootings and bombings to carve out an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France.
Spain's Socialist government ended peace negotiations with ETA after it killed two people in a car bombing at Madrid's Barajas airport in 2006, effectively breaking a ceasefire.
In the past two years, Spanish and French police have arrested around 400 ETA suspects, according to Spain.
Mr Rubalcaba said ETA peace talks attempted by successive Spanish governments were no longer an option.
"The negotiation process is the past, and the past never returns," he said.
Saturday's arrests mark a further blow for Eta after Spain's ruling Socialists won control of the Basque regional government in March, promising to heal wounds left by nationalist extremists and separatist gunmen.
The Socialists ended an unbroken string of governments by Basque nationalists since 1980 and Eta has said it will make incoming Basque Socialist leader Patxi Lopez a principal target.
Polls show the majority of Basques do not want independence from Spain and analysts say Eta guerillas have lost grassroots support, even among hardcore nationalists.
Reuters