Arrested cell was ETA's "most active" - Spanish Interior Minister

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Spain's Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba. Photo: EFE

Spain's Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said a cell made of nine people arrested on Tuesday was "without a doubt" behind the majority of the violence since ETA broke a truce with a December 2006 bombing at Madrid's Barajas airport.

As Rubalcaba put it Tuesday: "We can't say that this was ETA's only command cell, but it clearly was its most active."

He said the group is believed responsible for many recent attacks, including the May car bombing of a police barracks in Legutiano during which an officer died.

Rubalcaba added the cell's leader, Arkaitz Goikoetxea, was among those arrested in raids in the towns of Getxo and Elorrio, close to the port city of Bilbao.