Grenades explode near Madrid airport

MADRID, Spain – Two grenades exploded Friday close to an airport in northeastern Spain following warning calls by the Basque separatist group ETA, police said.

Police said no one was injured and no buildings were damaged in the explosions about 300 yards from the Zaragoza airport, which had been cordoned off by police following the warning calls to the Basque daily newspaper Gara and the Basque region’s traffic department.

A Spanish aviation department spokeswoman said the terminal building was evacuated as a precaution.

Police later found three grenade launchers outside the airport complex, one with a grenade still in it.

Zaragoza, capital of the Aragon region, is located halfway between Madrid and Barcelona.

ETA is blamed for killing more than 800 people since 1968.

The group, whose initials stand for Basque Homeland and Freedom, wants independence for the three-province Basque region in northern Spain, along the border with France.

Most recently, it has been blamed for more than half a dozen non-lethal bomb blasts since Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero obtained parliamentary backing in mid-May for his proposal to start talks with the group if it renounces violence.

ETA’s last fatal attack was a bombing that killed two police officers in May 2003.