Suspected ETA leaders charged

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish police have arrested 15 suspected leading youth members of the Basque separatist group, ETA.

Several hundred police officers took part in the raids on a number of cities in the Basque region of northern Spain and in neighbouring Navarre, overnight on Monday.

Those detained are suspected members of a youth wing of the Basque separatist organisation called Haika, which has been branded an "incubator" for ETA by Spanish ministers.

Police said on Tuesday that all those arrested were aged between 21 and 25. They have been charged with being members of ETA.

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The arrests were ordered by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon who has been seeking to dismantle what officials say is ETA's support network, including Haika and publications which support ETA's armed campaign.

A senior police officer said Haika acted as a training ground for members of ETA, which resumed its armed campaign for independence in December 1999 after a 14-month truce.

The organisation claimed responsibility for 23 killings in 2000 -- the bloodiest year of ETA violence since 1992, when it killed 26 people. The killings have been followed by mass protests by anti-ETA demonstrators.

Juan Cotino, director-general of Spain's national police force, said: "Since the end of the truce, the immense majority of the terrorists arrested were once part of this organisation.

"First they throw stones, then petrol bombs, and next they pick up a gun or plant a car bomb."

Haika was formed last year with the merger of Jarrai, a radical pro-independence youth group on the Spanish side of the border, with Gazteraik, a similar organisation in France.

Top government officials hailed the arrests as a major blow against Haika -- which stands for Rise Up in the Basque language.

Mariano Rajoy, Spain's newly appointed interior minister said: "We must point out the importance of these arrests because Haika is a school for ETA members, it is the seedbed for the terrorist organisation."

ETA, whose initials stand for "Basque Homeland and Freedom" in the Basque language, is blamed for about 800 assassinations since 1968 in its campaign for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and south-western France.

Police in Spain last month arrested more than 20 suspected members or supporters of ETA after a car bombing in the Basque city of San Sebastian which killed two people.

Officials have said they expect further violence ahead of an early regional election for the Basque region's parliament set for May 13.

The Basque Government last month called an early election in the region, in which the nationalists face losing power.

The moderate Basque Nationalist Party brought the vote forward after losing the support of its hard-line, pro-independence allies.

Polls show the nationalists could be defeated by the Popular Party (PP), which governs Spain, if it reaches an agreement with the Socialist Party, its arch rival at national level.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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