According to a report on the 20minutos website this morning based on information provided by a Guardia Civil insider, Asier Bengoa, who was arrested with Saioa Sánchez (third photo, below) near Toulouse on the 5th December, did not take part in the murder of two plain-clothes Guardia Civil officers outside a commercial centre in Capbreton the previous Saturday.

Forensic evidence indicates, instead, that the third member of the gang was Aitzol Iriondo (30), who is believed to be the head of ETA's logistical operation. The same source indicates that Iriondo used to act as bodyguard to the other suspected gang member, ETA's military commander, Garikoitz Aspiazu, alias 'Txeroki'. Both men remain at large.

It now seems that Bengoa met up with Sánchez on the Sunday after the executions at a pre-arranged rendez-vous near Bordeaux.

It has also been divulged that the two murdered officers had been in Capbreton for several days prior to the attack, installing surveillance cameras around the town where the terrorists were believed to have set up a safehouse.

'You murdering sons of bitches'
By: thinkSPAIN
Saturday, December 8, 2007

These were the last words uttered by either Fernando Trapero (second photo) or Raúl Centeno before they were shot dead outside a commercial centre in south-west France last Saturday. The short conversation that took place between the officers and their murderers was caught on a microphone inside their unmarked police car, and revealed yesterday by the French investigation team.

It transpires that the officers were already seated inside their vehicle when they were surrounded from behind by the gang of three. While one rifled through the boot to confirm their suspicions that the two men were indeed undercover agents, the other two terrorists stood facing each other either side of the front car doors with handguns raised at the officers' heads.

"Txakurras. You're txakurras. Txakurra sons of bitches," shouted one of the terrorists (txakurra is a Basque word meaning dog, and used by ETA to refer to state security agents) to which one of the officers, thought to be Fernando Trapero, replied "you murdering sons of bitches," just moments before the fatal shots rang out.

Investigators have confirmed that there is sufficient evidence to implicate the two suspects arrested last Wednesday directly with the murders, and that it is now believed that it was 26 year old Saioa Sánchez who fired all three shots, although the weapon she used has still not been found. Neither of the two weapons seized when the two suspects were arrested - a 9mm parabellum and a 357 Magnum - was the one used to murder the two officers.

The third member of the gang, who remains at large, is now believed to be Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu, alias 'Txeroki', who is a high-ranking member of ETA's military operation, and thought to be responsible for passing on the final instructions to active terror cells poised to strike.

The state funeral for Fernando Trapero, who died of his injuries last Wednesday, in Madrid yesterday was attended by King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofía, the Prince and Princess of Asturias, and a large number of leading political leaders including president Zapatero and PP opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy, who were seen shaking hands for the third time this week in a further show of renewed unity against terrorism.

Second assassin identified as 'one of ETA's most wanted'
By: thinkSPAIN
Thursday, December 6, 2007

The identity of the female ETA suspect arrested by French police in Châteauneuf-de-Randon, near Toulouse, yesterday has been confirmed. After some initial confusion, she has been named as Saioa Sánchez Iturregi, alias 'Hintza', who is near the top of the list of most wanted ETA suspects, and an alleged member of the 'Larrano' ETA terror cell that had been planning a series of attacks in the Cantabrian region earlier this year.

She and her male accomplice, Asier Bengoa López de Armentia, were arrested as they were waiting to get on a bus. Although armed, they gave up their weapons without a struggle and were found in posession of a large quantity of cash. Both have been transferred to the headquarters of the French Police's Anti-terror division (SDAT) in Paris, where they are being interrogated.

A source close to the investigation explained yesterday that forensic evidence collected at the crime scene in Capbreton where the two Spanish Guardia Civil officers were murdered last Saturday, is being analysed to see if the two suspects can be placed at the scene, and that these results should be available later today.

Notwithstanding, the same source revealed that physical descriptions of the perpetrators provided by eye-witnesses to last Saturday's shootings are said to tally with the appearance of the two suspects detained yesterday.

It has also been revealed that the arrests were made after a number of local people advised the police of the presence in the area of a suspicious young couple speaking French with Spanish accents.

Second Guardia dies as two suspects seized
By: thinkSPAIN
Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Fernando Trapero died of his injuries this morning at La Côte Basque Hospital in Bayonne, three days after being shot in the head by an ETA assassin outside a commercial centre in Capbreton in south-west France.

Speaking in Naples, where he is taking part in the 15th Hispano-Italian summit, president Zapatero has expressed his condolences to Fernando's family and friends, and congratulated French police, who arrested two of the three terrorists believed responsible this morning at a routine police roadblock set up at a bus stop in Châteauneuf de Randon (Lozère).

The identity of one of the two has been confirmed as Asier Bengoa López de Armentia (31) and the other is believed to be his girlfriend, Agurtzane Izarza Hernández (32), though this has not been confirmed officially.

Both were armed and found in possession of a substantial quantity of cash.

French Interior minister, Michelle Alliot Marie, has confirmed that evidence exists to implicate the pair in last Saturday's fatal shootings.

The hunt continues for the third member of the gang, who is believed to be a high-ranking ETA leader.