Costa tourists face terror threat

Published on Monday 18 June 2007 01:06

BASQUE terrorists are planning a summer offensive in Spain which could target British tourists, a leaked Spanish military intelligence report has warned.

Millions of Britons travel to the Spanish Costas over the summer months and intelligence experts fear ETA is gearing up for major attacks.

The dossier, drawn up by Spanish Army intelligence and leaked to the media, warned of an imminent attack aimed at having "far reaching effects ... of international concern".

ETA, which over the years has repeatedly targeted holiday areas in an effort to damage Spain's vital tourist industry, announced the end of its so-called "permanent ceasefire" nearly two weeks ago, after 14 months.

The separatist terror movement blamed the Socialist government for a lack of response to its call for negotiations aimed at finding a peaceful settlement of the Basque problem in March last year.

ETA, which once had close links with the IRA, has killed more than 850 people in four decades of bloodshed.

The Spanish government already considered the truce had ended last December, when a massive car bomb in a multi-storey car park at Madrid international airport killed two people.

The leaked report warns ETA has five mobile terror cells in place made-up of some 70 young terrorists who spent the ceasefire being trained by ETA veterans in exile in Latin America.

The report says the new so-called itinerant cells are carrying 350 small arms - stolen last autumn in a raid on an armoury near Nimes, in the south of France - and have access to some 2,000kg of explosives. That will be used to make car bombs across the frontier in France ready to be planted at targets in Spain over the coming months.

The Foreign Office in London has updated its travel advice to Britons heading for Spain counselling tourists to be "vigilant" and saying: "There is a high risk of terrorism in Spain. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers."