Car bomb explodes in Spain

MADRID : A suspected car bomb exploded early Wednesday near a Civil Guard barracks in the northern city of Burgos, the Interior Ministry said.

Authorities did not have any immediate details on injuries or damage. State broadcaster RTVE said in its early morning radio and television news bulletins that several dozen people were slightly injured, mainly from flying glass, when the bomb detonated around 4:00 a.m. (0200 GMT).

Police and emergency services did not receive any warning that a bomb had been planted, but the explosion had the hallmarks of a terror attack by the separatist Basque group ETA, the broadcaster said.

Burgos was once the capital of Spain and contains a historic city center with important tourist attractions.

On June 19, a bomb attached to the underside of a car killed a Spanish police detective who investigates ETA. That attack was in Arrigorriaga, also near the northern Basque port of Bilbao.

ETA has killed more than 825 people since it launched a campaign in the late 1960s for an independent homeland in Basque regions of northern Spain.

ETA declared what it called a permanent cease-fire in 2006, but reverted to violence within months after peace talks with the Spanish government went nowhere.