It has been confirmed that the dark red Citroen Berlingo van used in the car bomb attack on a Guardia Civil barracks in Legutiano yesterday morning was stolen in France last month.

Its owner has identified a key ring found inside the terrorists' get-away car - a Peugeot 306 stolen in Bernago on April 14th - which was found abandoned on a forest path in the Puerto de Urkiola.

Latest reports indicate that French police are now almost certain that the Berlingo was stolen on April 16th from outside a garage in Linards (near Limoges), where the owner had left it to be repaired.

Felipe and Letizia mourn slain Guardia
By: thinkSPAIN
Thursday, May 15, 2008

Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia are in Vitoria today to attend the funeral of Juan Manuel Piñuel Villalón (main photo), the only mortal victim of a car bomb attack on a Guardia Civil facility in Legutiano yesterday morning, that left four others injured, one seriously.

After the funeral, which starts at Vitoria Cathedral at 10.30am, Mr Piñuel's body will be taken for cremation to Málaga which is home to his widow, young son as well as several other relatives including two sisters. It seems that Mr Piñuel, who arrived in the Basque region two months ago, had agreed to a tour of duty there in order to secure a future posting in Málaga.

Originally from Melilla, Mr Piñuel (41) joined the Guardia Civil seven years ago. It appears that Mr Piñuel, who was in an annexe of the barracks totally destroyed in the blast, was in the process of reporting the suspicious vehicle when the bomb went off, killing him instantly.

Estimates of the amount of explosives packed inside the abandoned Citroen Berlingo van range between 100-300kg, though there is general consensus that the death toll could have been very much higher.

After parliament united yesterday to condemn the attack and mourn the victims, today's funeral will also be attended by a select group of high-ranking political representatives from both sides of the political divide though president Zapatero, who visited Vitoria Cathedral yesterday to pay his respects at the chapel of rest, cannot be there as he is travelling to South America.

Barracks bomb kills one, four injured
By: thinkSPAIN
Wednesday, May 14, 2008

There was no previous warning this time for a van bomb attack on a Guardia Civil barracks in Legutiano (Vitoria) at 2.57am this morning that killed one officer and has left four others - two men and two women - seriously injured.

The dead man, whose body has not yet been recovered from the debris, has been identified as Juan Manuel Piñuel Villalón (41), a married man with a young daughter, originally from Melilla.

The most seriously injured of the other four victims, the lives of none of whom is reported to be at risk, is a sergeant who was trapped in the rubble of the seriously damaged building for two hours. He and the other three victims were taken to the Txagorritxu and Santiago hospitals in Vitoria.

Around four dozen other people were inside the residential barracks building when the bomb went off who escaped physical injury, but are being attended to by a team of four Red Cross psychologists.

The get-away car used by the terrorists to flee the scene has been found abandoned in Abadiño in the neighbouring province of Vizcaya. In an attempt to destroy evidence, the car had been primed with an incendiary device which failed to activate.

Some kind of ETA backlash to the government's continued refusal to encourage regional president Ibarretxe's Basque sovereignty crusade had been expected in the run-up to the next meeting between presidents Zapatero and Ibarretxe at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid on May 20th.