Four cars burnt out in Basque country

Madrid, July 15: Four cars were set alight and burnt out early this morning in the town of Vitoria in the Basque Country, Basque police said today.

The fires were started with incendiary devices using inflammable liquid and bore the hallmarks of Basque nationalist street fighting, the police said.

Tension is high in the northern region after the ETA separatist group called off a cease-fire in June which had been in place since March 2006.

ETA has killed more than 800 people in four decades of armed struggle seeking independence from Spain. The last fatal attack was in December when a car bomb at a Madrid airport car park killed two people.

Police arrested a suspected ETA rebel earlier this month at bus station in northern Spain carrying a timer and a pistol. Government officials said the man was plotting a car bomb attack near a government building.

REUTERS >