Spain's interior ministry confirmed Saturday that two men arrested by French police were believed responsible for a fatal bombing at Madrid airport in December 2006 by the Basque separatist group ETA. Mikel San Sebastian, 29, and Joseba Iturbide, 30, are suspected of belonging to the Elurra commando which carried out the attack at Madrid airport which killed two people in a multi-storey car park, the ministry said. A couple also arrested in Friday's raid on a house southwestern French town of Saint Jean-de-Luz were named as Jose Antonio Martinez Mur, 58, a longtime member of ETA, and his partner Asuncion Bengoechea Arano.
The ministry said the raid was mounted after weeks of surveillance of the property, which was believed to be linked to ETA's financing. The house had been searched and evidence seized which was being analysed.
On January 6, police in Spain's northern Basque region arrested two other men -- Igor Portu and Mattin Sarasola -- in connection with the Madrid attack two Ecuadoran men in the car park. They said at the time they were searching for a third man also believed to have played a role.
The airport bombing came during an ETA ceasefire, which the group eventually called off in June 2007, 15 months after it had announced it was laying down its arms. Last December, ETA claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting of two Spanish police officers in southwestern France who were working on a joint anti-ETA operation with French counterparts.
ETA, considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States, is blamed for the deaths of 819 people in Spain in its nearly 40-year campaign for an independent Basque state.