French and Spanish police are congratulating each other after a dawn raid in Britanny captured the suspected head of ETA’s political wing, Batasuna, Aitor Elizaran, and his companion Oihana Sanvicente.

It comes just days after ETA leader Arnaldo Otegi was detained, and may be as a result of his interrogation. The latest arrests were made in Carnac in an operation Madrid says is of the utmost importance. The Spanish Interior Minister says the fight goes on. “A year ago in Bordeaux, in May, the former chief of ETA’s political apparatus was arrested. That was Francisco Javier Pena. A year has passed, and now the new chief has been arrested, too,” said Alfredo Pérez Rubalcalba. The double blows over the weekend to the Basque militants are hard to quantify as the organisation’s hierarchy has traditionally been hard to pin down, but the police seem sure they have got the right people. With arms dumps also being uncovered in France, ETA is being weakened, but by how much no-one is quite sure.More about: Basque country, ETA, France, Terrorism

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