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Bomb kills 2 Spanish police on Mallorca
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-07-31 09:04

Bomb kills 2 Spanish police on Mallorca
Investigators gesture beside the wreckage of a car in Palmanova, in the Balearic Island of Mallorca, July 30, 2009. [Agencies]

The blast occurred shortly before 2 pm (1200 GMT, 8 am EDT). The ministry said several people were injured but none was in serious condition.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will fly to the island later Thursday.

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ETA is now blamed for nine attacks this year. The group has killed more than 825 people since it launched its violent campaign in 1968 for an independent homeland in the Basque region of northern Spain. The group was founded July 31, 1959.

There were no warning calls before the attacks over the past two days and no group had claimed responsibility.

In Wednesday's attack, there were around 120 people in the 14-story barracks and surrounding buildings, a third of them children, at the time of the early morning blast.

The van had false license plates and had probably been stolen in France, officials said.

El Mundo newspaper recently reported that Spanish authorities had received intelligence reports that three vans had been prepared as car bombs and were expected to cross into Spain from France. One of the vehicles mentioned was a Mercedes Vito, the same model that was used in Wednesday's attack, leading to speculation there might be two van bombs still ready to be used.

Spain has vowed to crush the separatist group since ETA ended what it had said was a permanent cease-fire with a bombing that destroyed a Madrid airport parking garage and killed two people in 2006.