List of ETA attacks


This page is a list of attacks undertaken by Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, a paramilitary and armed Basque separatist group, mainly in Spain. The list includes attacks by all the branches and divisions that ETA had through its history, as well as some kale borroka attacks. Important failed attacks are also included.
Since 1961, ETA conducted many attacks against a variety of targets. Because these attacks number in the hundreds over a span of more than 45 years, not all can be included here. This incomplete list may include attacks noted for being the first of their kind made by the organization, first in a particular area, notability of targets, large number of victims, unique method of attack, or other historic significance. The list is of those attacks described above between 1961 and 2011.

Overview

The number of people killed by ETA is sometimes disputed. The Spanish Interior Ministry, the Basque government, and major news agencies state that 829 people were killed in ETA attacks. Some victims' organizations such as the Asociación de Víctimas del Terrorismo and the Colectivo de Víctimas del Terrorismo en el País Vasco place the death toll of ETA's victims at 952, including in the list Iberian Revolutionary Liberation Directory's victim Begoña Urroz and several unresolved attacks, and the Hotel Corona de Aragón fire.
From 1968 until 2002, there were more than 3,300 ETA attacks, which also left more than 2,000 people injured.

Chronology

1961–1969

  • July 18, 1961: In the organization's first known attack, ETA activists unsuccessfully attempt to derail trains carrying Franco supporters to commemorative celebrations in San Sebastián.
  • September 24, 1965: An ETA unit intercepts and robs a bank courier.
  • April, 1967: ETA activists assault the Banco Guipuzcoano in Villabona, taking over one million pesetas in ETA's first direct bank robbery.
  • December 1967: An ETA squad attempts to blow up buildings in Eibar and Elgoibar. During the getaway, an exchange of gunfire with the members of the Guardia Civil at a roadblock wounds two of the ETA activists.
  • June 7, 1968: Two ETA activists, Txabi Etxebarrieta and Iñaki Sarasqueta, kill Guardia Civil member José Pardines at a roadblock. It is the first death attributed to ETA. Following the incident, the two ETA activists are shot at another roadblock. Etxebarrieta is killed, while Sarasqueta is wounded.
  • August 2, 1968: An ETA squad shoots and kills Melitón Manzanas, commander of the Francoist political police division in San Sebastián, as he returns to his home in Irun. It is ETA's first planned assassination. The Franco government declares a "state of exception" in the province the next day.

    1970–1979

  • January 17, 1972: ETA kidnaps Lorenzo Zabala Suinaga, the ethnic Basque director of a factory where striking workers were recently fired. ETA demands that the factory make concessions to its workers. These conditions are largely met on January 22, the strikers return to work, and Zabala is found unharmed in a rural area on the night of January 24.
  • August 29, 1972: ETA activists kill Galdakao policeman Eloy Garcia in a shootout.
  • January 16, 1973: An ETA commando kidnaps Navarran industrialist Felipe Huarte from his home. ETA demands 50 million pesetas and concessions to striking workers at a factory owned by Huarte. With payment of the ransom and resolution of the labor dispute, Huarte is released on January 26.
  • January 31, 1973: ETA activists assault a powder magazine near Hernani and take 3,000 kilograms of explosives, later hiding them in the same "safe house" near San Sebastián where Felipe Huarte had been kept.
  • December 20, 1973: Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco is killed along with his driver and a bodyguard when ETA detonates explosives under his passing vehicle on a Madrid street as Carrero Blanco returns from Mass. The tunnel in which the explosives were placed had been prepared over nearly two years
  • September 13, 1974: The Cafetería Rolando bombing. Located near the Dirección General de Seguridad and another police building, the explosion inside the cafe kills and wounds an unclear number of patrons. ETA officially denies responsibility, but several leftists are arrested and charged with the crime later claim the organization provided the explosives and expertise for the bombing.
  • December 18, 1974: An ETA squad unsuccessfully attempts to steal 25 million pesetas from a factory near Urduliz, wounding two members of the Guardia Civil while escaping.
  • December 28, 1974: ETA activists rob the Banco de Bilbao in Vitoria, taking six million pesetas.
  • March 30, 1975: A police inspector named José Diaz Linares is killed in San Sebastián by ETA.
  • April 22, 1975: A policeman named Morán is killed by ETA in Algorta.
  • May 14, 1975: ETA kills a Guardia Civil lieutenant in Guernica.
  • October 5, 1975: Three agents of the Guardia Civil are killed when an ETA bomb destroys their vehicle while on patrol in the mountains of Gipuzkoa.
  • November 24, 1975: In the organization's first attack since the death of Franco on November 20, ETA assassinates Antonio Echeverría, the mayor of Oyarzun and alleged police informer.
  • January 15, 1976: ETA activists kidnap José Luis Arrasate, son of a Basque industrialist, from his home in Berriz. The family is unable to pay the ransom, and amid condemnation from various Basque groups, Arrasate is released unharmed on February 15.
  • February 1976: Victor Legoburu, mayor of Galdakao and alleged police informer, is killed by ETA.
  • March 18, 1976: ETA kidnaps and kills Angel Berazadi, a Basque industrialist.
  • April 1976: ETA claims responsibility for the killings of two Spanish policemen in Southern France. Later in the month, the group electrocutes guardia civil Miguel Gordo Garcia when he attempts to remove a booby-trapped Basque flag in Barakaldo.
  • October 4, 1976: Assassination of Juan María de Araluce Villar. In a daytime machine gun attack on the streets of San Sebastián, ETA activists kill Juan María De Araluce Villar, president of the Provincial Assembly of Gipuzkoa and member of the Council of the Realm, along with his driver and three police guards. Ten bystanders are wounded.
  • October 8, 1977: In Guernica, ETA gunmen kill Augusto Guillermo Unceta Barrenechea, president of the Provincial Assembly of Biscay, along with two guardia civil who had been escorting him.
  • May 9, 1978: In Pamplona, a bomb concealed in a streetlight explodes as a Guardia Civil vehicle passes, killing agent Manuel Lopez Gonzalez.
  • September 25, 1978: ETA gunmen kill two guardia civiles in San Sebastián, then hijack a taxi while making their escape.
  • October 22, 1978: ETA gunmen ambush four civil guards, killing three of them and wounding the fourth in an attack in Getxo.
  • July 28, 1979: three bombs in Barajas Airport and Atocha and Chamartín train stations, kill 7 people and injured a further 100. The attacks came a day after attacks in Bilbao and San Sebastian had killed four people.

    1980–1989

  • February 1, 1980: 6 Civil Guards are killed in an ambush at Ispaster after their convoy was attacked with guns and grenades. 2 ETA members are also killed by a grenade they had thrown. This was the deadliest incident of 1980.
  • April 16, 1980: 2 Civil Guards are killed after the border post they were manning was attacked with gunfire.
  • May 15, 1980: 3 Policía Nacional officers are shot dead by an ETA gunman at a cafe in San Sebastián.
  • July 13, 1980: In an ambush in Orio, ETA attempts a repeat of the attack in Ispaster earlier in the year and kills 2 Civil Guards. However a subsequent gunfight results in the death of 2 ETA members.
  • September 20, 1980: 4 civil guards are killed in attack in a bar in Markina
  • October 3, 1980: 3 police officers are killed after their car was strafed with gunfire in Durango.
  • October 4, 1980: Three unmasked gunmen murder 3 Civil Guards minutes before the start of a cycling race that was to have kicked off a local fiesta in Agurain/Salvatierra, Àlava The murders received particular notoriety because the local priest, Ismael Arrieta Pérez de Mendiola, provided details to help the terrorists plan the attack. Father Ismael received 10 years in prison for each of the 3 murders.
  • November 3, 1980: ETA's second deadliest attack of the year sees 5 people, four of them civil guards, killed in a gun attack in a bar in Zarautz
  • May 7, 1981: 3 members of the Spanish military are killed after a bomb was placed on top of their vehicle in Madrid.
  • 1981: A bomb exploded in the hull, near the boiler area of the Spanish destroyer Marqués de la Ensenada while anchored in the port city of Santander, Cantabria, Spain.
  • March 23, 1982: An ETA gun attack kills 2 police inspectors and a civilian in Sestao.
  • September 14, 1982: ETA's deadliest attack of the year occurs in Rentería, where they ambush and kill four police officers.
  • May 28, 1983: 2 Civil Guards were killed by gunmen in Pamplona while guarding a post office.
  • April 13, 1984: A booby trap bomb in a car kills 2 policemen in Pamplona. Earlier in the day a retired army commander was shot dead by ETA gunmen, also in Pamplona.
  • December 7, 1984: A bomb hidden in a car detonates as a military convoy passes in the town of Galdakao. 2 soldiers and a civilian are killed.
  • May 22, 1985: 2 off-duty policemen are shot dead near San Sebastián.
  • May 30, 1985: A 14-year-old boy and a policeman are killed by a bomb in Pamplona.
  • September 1985: A car bomb in Madrid kills an American citizen and wounds 16 Civil Guards.
  • February 6, 1986: Rear Admiral Cristóbal Colón de Carvajal y Maroto and his driver; the Rear Admiral, descended from Cristóbal Colón.
  • June 17, 1986: 3 members of Spanish army are shot dead inside a car while driving through Madrid.
  • July 14, 1986: Plaza República Dominicana bombing. A car bomb on República Dominicana square in Madrid explodes at the passing of a small bus carrying young Civil Guards, killing 12 of them and injuring 50 people.
  • January 30, 1987: A car bomb by the Plaza del Pilar in Zaragoza explodes at the passing of a military bus carrying personnel and teachers of the General Military Academy, killing 1 officer and the bus driver and injuring more than 40, some critically.
  • June 19, 1987: Hipercor bombing: A car bomb explodes in the underground car park of an Hipercor supermarket in Barcelona, killing 21 civilians, mostly women and several small children, and injuring 45.
  • July 14, 1987: A roadside bomb explodes beside a Civil Guard patrol in Oñate, killing 2.
  • August 6, 1987: A bomb kills 2 policemen in Vitoria.
  • September 9, 1987: A car bomb detonates outside the Civil Guard headquarters in Guernica. 2 Civil Guards are killed.
  • December 11, 1987: Zaragoza barracks bombing: 250 kg of explosives inside a car bomb explode next to the Civil Guard's Barracks in Zaragoza, killing 11 people, including 5 children and injuring 88.
  • April 15, 1988: 2 policemen are shot dead in Vitoria.
  • August 21, 1988: A car bomb in Estella kills 2 police officers.
  • September 10, 1988: 2 police men of the anti-terrorism brigade are shot dead in Izurtza.
  • November 22, 1988: A bomb outside a Civil Guard building in Madrid kills 2 civilians, one of whom was a 2-year-old child.
  • May 8, 1989: A booby-trap bomb kills 2 policemen in Madrid.
  • May 24, 1989: A car bomb in Bilbao killed 2 officers of the National Police and 1 Ertzaintza.
  • June 26, 1989: A large bomb exploded outside a Civil Guard barracks in the town of Llodio, thirteen miles from Bilbao.
  • July 19, 1989: A commander and colonel in the Spanish army are shot dead by gunmen in Madrid.
  • September 12, 1989: Anti-terrorist prosecutor from the Audiencia Nacional Carmen Tagle is shot dead in front of her home.
  • October 1989-July 1990: ETA attacks in the Netherlands.