ETA planned new wave of violence

The armed Basque group ETA planned to murder politicians, attack businesses and start a summer bombing campaign in the tourist region of Andalusia, court documents showed on Sunday.

The details emerged during an investigation into one of the armed militants' most active cells, dismantled by police on Tuesday with the arrest of nine people.

The cell was plotting to kidnap and murder Basque Socialist town councilor Benjamin Atutxa the same way conservative Popular Party politician Miguel Angel Blanco was killed in 1997, the documents said.

ETA shot the 29-year-old PP member twice in the back of the head and dumped his body on a country road, provoking nationwide disgust, after the group's demand for all ETA prisoners to be moved to the Basque country went unheeded.

The armed group also planned to kill Popular Party senator Ramon Rabanera and judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska and were about to carry out attacks in the holiday region of Andalusia, targeting shopping centers and hotels, the documents said.

High-profile investigating judge Baltasar Garzon, known for trying to extradite former Chilean military ruler Augusto Pinochet from London to Spain for human rights abuses in the late 1990s, is handling the case.

He said the arrests had weakened ETA, although the armed militants could hit back at any time.