Today at mid-day the fifth bomb planted by ETA in the past few days exploded in Llanes (Asturias), without causing material damage or injuries.<\/p>\n
Traditionally ETA makes its presence known in the Summer, often using tourist resorts in order to maximize international awareness and threaten the Spanish tourist industry. This year the bombs have been quite small compared to other years, and rather than concentrating on the South coast, ETA has planted the bombs in the North of Spain in Asturias and Cantabria.<\/p>\n
Today true to its usual tactics, ETA telephoned a newspaper to warn authorities of the existence and the location of the bomb, an hour before it was due to explode in the Port of Llanes. Police had time to shut off the area and when the bomb did go off in a police-controlled explosion in a litter bin, some 400 metres from where the ETA spokesman had said it was located, it turned out to be a small explosive.<\/p>\n
This explosive is similar to those used in similar incidents in Ribadesella and Gij\u00f3n last week. Until this Summer ETA had not launched a terrorist attack since the 11th March train bombings carried out by Islamic extremist terrorists, and many Spaniards had hoped that the sheer scale of the March attacks and the fact that the Spanish Government pointed the blame at ETA had shocked the Basque terrorist group into a sort of unofficial truce. Events during the last few days seem to show that this is not the case.<\/p>\n