Basque Separatists Suspected in Explosives Theft
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Police suspect Basque separatists (search) were behind the theft of several tons of chemicals that could be used to make bombs from a factory in western France, judicial officials said Saturday.
Armed men wearing masks stole some 4.4 U.S. tons of sodium chlorate from a fertilizer plant in the western town of Saint-Benoit (search) on Friday, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
Investigators suspected the armed Basque separatist group ETA was involved, the officials said, adding that a factory guard told investigators that the six men spoke with Spanish accents.
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Sodium chlorate has been used in the past to make bombs for ETA attacks. The chemical, normally used as a weed-killer, has been found in several ETA-related arrests in France.
ETA (search), which stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom, has been fighting since the late 1960s to carve an independent Basque homeland out of a region straddling northern Spain and southwest France. It has been blamed for more than 800 killings.