Attacks mark return of Spain terror group

Policemen inspect the damaged offices of Spanish newspaper El Mundo

MADRID, Spain (Reuters) -- The Marxist group GRAPO has claimed responsibility for a second bomb attack in two days.

A 1.5 kg bomb exploded outside the Madrid office of the ruling Popular Party on Saturday, but caused no injuries and only minor damage.

An official said GRAPO, the First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Group, claimed responsibility for the attack an hour later in a phone call in which a woman said: "We have just set off a bomb... Long live the armed struggle."

The attack comes a day after three armed members of GRAPO entered an office of Spanish newspaper El Mundo in Barcelona and set off a bomb which slightly injured two Spanish police officers.

GRAPO was active mainly in the late 1970s following the 36-year dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, when it was blamed for dozens of killings in a campaign to create a Marxist state.

Many of its leading members were subsequently jailed and the group had been largely dormant in recent years, appearing with an occasional small bomb attack or attempted robbery.

GRAPO burst back on to the scene in May with the heist of an armoured van in which two security guards were killed and was also blamed for three bomb attacks on employment offices on Wednesday.

No one was injured in those bombings, which followed similar attacks on temporary employment agencies elsewhere in Spain earlier this year.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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