Jun 23, 2009, 10:03 GMT
San Sebastian, Spain - Spanish police Tuesday detained three suspected members of the militant Basque separatist group ETA, seizing 75 kilogrammes of explosives, police sources said.
The detainees had received the explosives from ETA members based in France, and intended to pass them on to cells which would have committed attacks, according to media reports.
The explosives were seized in an industrial warehouse in the Basque locality of Usurbil, where two of the suspects - a man and a woman - were living.
The third suspect, who was a woman, was arrested in Astigarraga.
The detainees were suspected of involvement in attacks against the construction of a high-speed railway in the Basque region.
They appeared to have links with Jurdan Martitegi, ETA's military leader, who was captured in France in April, police said.
The arrests followed a bombing which killed police officer Eduardo Puelles in the Basque region last week. However, the detainees did not appear to have been involved with the killing, reports said.
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated Saturday against the killing of Puelles, the first by ETA this year.
Forty-four people have been held for links with ETA so far in 2009.
ETA, which is regarded as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, has killed more than 820 people since 1968.
The group seeks an independent Basque country of more than 2 million residents created out of northern Spain and southern France.
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