Funeral for ETA's last victim in Segovia

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The attack killed sergeant major Luis Conde de la Cruz. Photo: EFE

Luis Conde de la Cruz's funeral started at 10, 30 am in Segovia, birthplace of the assassinated sergeant major. Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, conservative Popular Party's leader Mariano Rajoy and Basque Interior Councilor Javier Balza presided over the ceremony.

Military man Luis Conde de la Cruz, aged 46, was killed and another person wounded on Monday in a car bomb attack in the northern Spanish town of Santoña, near the Basque Country, a government spokesman said. The blast took place at around 1 a.m. (1100 GMT) in front of the military school called "Virgen del Puerto". It was said that the car bomb was loaded with 100 kilos of explosives. Six people were injured.

Santoña is a seaside town in the region of Cantabria and a neighbor of Laredo, a tourist resort in northern Spain that hosts the hospital to which a seriously affected victim was sent. Last reportings said that the victim was out of danger.

It is the third car bomb in 24 hours blamed on ETA. Another exploded outside a police station injuring 10 people in the town of Ondarroa, in the neighboring Basque Country.

Luis Conde de la Cruz is ETA's third mortal victim in 2008 after socialist town councilor Isaias Carrasco and Civil Guardian Juan Manuel Piñuel were killed in other two attacks.

It was reported earlier that a man identifying himself as a member of Basque armed group ETA had called Donostia - San Sebastian DYA (Emergency service) shortly before the explosion, that could be heard 6 kilometers far from Santoña.

The attacks were carried out just days before the Basque government was due to lodge a complaint at the European Court of Human Rights about Spanish authorities' refusal to let them hold a consultation on the Basque Country's future. The Basque Country, which has its own distinct language and culture, already has considerable autonomy over areas such as health and education.