LIMPET BOMB UNDER VAN KILLED TWO OFFICERS

Edition: 325

The Basque separatist terrorist group ETA struck in Navarra on Friday, killing two police officers and injuring one of their colleagues and a passer-by. The terrorists obviously knew that once a month police officers visit the Casa de Cultura in the small village of Sangüesa, to enable local residents to obtain or renew their identity cards, and they planted a limpet bomb beneath the officers’ van while it was parked in a square in the village centre. The device detonated when two of the policemen were in the van, preparing to return to base, and the third was about to get in. The force of the explosion blasted the vehicle 15 metres off the ground, and experts believe the bomb contained between five and six kilos of explosives. The two men who died were Bonifacio Martín, aged 56, who was from Ávila, and Julián Envit, 53, from Sabiñánigo. They were both married, and both had two children. Their colleague, who suffered serious multiple injuries, is aged 44. A passer-by was slightly hurt when the bomb blew up, and several people also needed medical assistance for minor cuts and for nervous attacks. This latest attack by ETA occurred only a few days after the municipal and regional elections, in which Batasuna, which is believed to be linked to the terrorist group, was banned from taking part because it has been declared illegal. It is the first time the terrorists have carried out an attack in Sangüesa, where none of the village’s councillors have until now felt the need for bodyguards, unlike their counterparts in other areas in the north of Navarra, and in Pamplona.