Two ETA Suspects Arrested in Spain after French Tip-off

Spanish authorities announced they had arrested Tuesday two suspected members of ETA, the Basque separatist movement which called an end to its armed struggle last year, after a tip-off from France.

The interior ministry said that police had detained Juan Ignacio Otano Labaca, 51, in the Andoain area of the northern Basque country while Inaki Iguerategui Lizarribar, 42, was detained in the nearby Tolosa.

"The arrest operation was conducted after analysis of ETA documents which had been recently sent by French judicial authorities," said a statement from the ministry.

The documents, "as well as ongoing investigations, led to the full identification of a cell suspected of supporting ETA structures," the statement added.

Three suspected members of ETA, including one suspected of being involved in the fatal shooting of a French policeman in Paris in 2010, were arrested last month in the town of Joigny, to the south of the capital.

ETA is blamed for 829 deaths during a four-decade campaign of shootings and bombings for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southern France.

It is classed as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.

The group announced in October 2011 that it was giving up its armed struggle.