ETA raid nets arms cache

Police lead away a suspect in the town of Zizurkil on Wednesday

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Police in Spain have arrested six more people believed to be members of the outlawed Basque separatist group ETA.

Friday's arrests in the Barcelona suburb of Terrasa was the third raid in as many days by the authorities who have been stung into action as a result of the group's recent attacks on tourist targets.

Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy told a news conference that Civil Guards also confiscated more than 550 pounds of explosives, firearms, forged license plates and electronic detonator components.

"The Civil Guard has frustrated ETA's intention of establishing a command cell in Barcelona, stopping a new campaign in Catalonia against people and possibly tourist interests," Rajoy was quoted by Reuters.

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Police now believe they have dismantled ETA's Donosti (San Sebastian) command unit which is thought to be responsible for at least 12 of the 35 killings ETA has carried out since calling off a temporary truce at the end of 1999.

The Interior Ministry said the recent arrests had been a result of closer security cooperation between the regional Basque leadership and the Spanish government.

The crackdown against ETA comes after a car bomb exploded at the weekend at a nearby Mediterranean tourist resort.

Earlier this year ETA announced it would specifically target Spain's lucrative tourist industry this summer.

Terrasa is about an hour's drive from the seaside resort of Salou, where last Saturday's powerful car bomb exploded, slightly injuring 13 people.

Authorities received a warning call in the name of ETA before that blast and were able to evacuate 800 British, Italian and other holidaymakers from the site.

Prior to the Salou attack, a car bomb was placed at the busy southern Malaga airport, prompting an evacuation of travellers before police finally defused the bomb.

The Associated Press said that among those arrested on Friday was Fernando Garcia Jodra, accused in last year's assassination of former Health Minister Ernest Lluch.

Jodra is also wanted for the slayings of officials of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's ruling Popular Party.

Friday's arrests, which a Civil Guard spokesman confirmed to CNN, came on the heels of another crackdown on Wednesday, when Basque police detained in northern Spain eight suspected ETA members and seized 160 kg, or 350 pounds, of explosives and also guns and grenades.

The national government, which directs the Civil Guard, and the Basque regional government, with its own police force, have recently vowed to cooperate more closely in the fight against ETA, blamed for about 800 killings in a 33-year-long fight for Basque independence.

Anti-ETA demonstrations were held on Wednesday across the Basque country following the death of an elderly woman in a bomb blast on Monday that also blinded her 16-month-old grandson.

The blast in the coastal resort of San Sebastian was triggered when the toddler began playing with a booby-trapped toy car his aunt had found in the bar-restaurant where she worked.

A government minister attributed the blast, which caused revulsion across Spain, to ETA youth groups.

The 16-month-old child lost his sight in the explosion and suffered brain damage and a mutilated hand as a result of the blast, as well as severe facial burns.