Gogeascoechea responsible for atrocious attacks, Minister says

A suspected leader of the armed Basque group arrested on Sunday morning in France has been responsible for "a good part of the most atrocious attacks since the end of the ceasefire," Spain''s Interior Minister said some hours after the police operation.

Ibon Gogeascoechea, wanted for trying to kill Spain''s King Juan Carlos in 1997, was caught along with two other senior ETA rebels in a joint Spanish-French raid near the small town of Cahan in Normandy, the Interior Ministry said.

"I would say these have been the worst two months in ETA''s history," Rubalcaba told a news conference, adding that he thought the two men caught with Gogeascoechea were receiving their last orders before going on a mission to Spain. "This was a commando group about to enter Spain with the worst intentions," Rubalcaba said.

Rubalcaba also cautioned that even a weakened ETA would be capable of carrying out attacks.

Gogeascoechea was the fifth top ETA leader to be caught since 2008 and his arrest was just one of a wave of detentions this year, which has also seen the seizure of two tonnes of explosives, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said.

The 54-year-old Gogeascoechea and his accomplices were caught in a car with false licence plates after arousing suspicion by renting a rural house using fake identities, the Interior Ministry said.

He has been personally linked to attacks including the 2008 assassination of Isaias Carrasco, a small-town Socialist Party politician, Rubalcaba said.