Though a cease-fire was declared by ETA in 2006 following the Madrid bombings, the group has kicked up its campaign of violence again with persistent bombings. ETA has now killed more than 825 people since the1960s in itscampaign for an independent Basque country in northern Spain andsouthwestern France.

Police officers working to evacuate residents were injured in a bomb explosion Thursday in the northern Basque city of Bilbao. The blast followed a warning call in the name of the armed group ETA, a police spokesman said.

The bomb exploded at 6 a.m. in the doorway of offices of Spain's governing Socialist Party in La Pena district. A call in ETA's name was made to a regional traffic department a half-hour earlier saying where and when the blast would occur, the spokesman said.

Seven officers who were in the area helping to evacuate people and cordon off the zone were treated for light injuries, said the spokesman. He was speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with police regulations. A police patrol in the area had already spotted a suspicious package outside the Socialist Party building around 5 a.m. and had begun evacuating residents from the area.

The explosion came a day after King Juan Carlos called for political unity in fighting terrorism in Spain. He was speaking after inaugurating Parliament following elections last month. Thursday's blast caused considerable damage to the party's office and to nearby buildings.

Source: online.wsj.com