ETA boobytrap bomb injures 11

Eleven Spanish police officers were injured yesterday by a boobytrap bomb blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA which is pressing ahead with its bloodiest offensive in years. Three of the policemen were in ” very serious condition” after undergoing surgery for head, chest and stomach wounds and two were in serious condition, according to a statement issued by a hospital in San Sebastian. The others suffered light injuries, a police spokesman said. He denied an earlier comment by a government spokesman that two passers-by had been hurt, saying all the 11 injured were police. The blast was the latest in a series of attacks by ETA which has been blamed for 20 killings this year. The bomb went off as the policemen tried to dismantle grenade launchers near a Civil Guard barracks in the town of Intxaurrondo, close to San Sebastian. Grenades fired earlier at the barracks missed. “Everything would suggest it is ETA,” the government spokesman said. Enrique Villar, the government's representative in the semi-autonomous Basque Country, said the grenade attack lured police to the launchers where the bomb was timed to go off.