PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A terror scare has gripped the Spanish island of Mallorca, one of Europe's most popular tourist destinations.
Authorities remain on high alert after a series of bombing attacks by Basque separatist group ETA on the Mediterranean holiday island. They are unsure whether the individuals behind the four bombings on Sunday are still hiding on the island or have already left.
The blasts, which caused no casualties, come after a July 30 car bombing on police barracks in Palma Nova that killed two Guardia Civil police officers.
"There is no denying that whenever it can, ETA attacks. So we cannot rule out the possibility that they will try again," said Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.
Noting that ETA targets mainly police institutions, he added that tourists could feel safe on Mallorca. The group had issued warnings before detonating the most recent bombs -- two of them exploded in bars, a third one in an underground shopping mall in the capital Palma, with security officials defusing the fourth placed in another bar.
King Juan Carlos, who is on holiday on the island, denounced the attacks. "That band of murderers and scoundrels will neither alter Spanish democratic life nor normality on the island," he said.
But that's exactly what officials on Mallorca are worried about: that its tourism industry, already hit hard by the weak British pound and an overall worrisome economic situation, will take another hit because of the ETA terror.
Mallorca is one of Europe's biggest vacation hot spots: Around 10 million tourists visited the island last year, with most of them coming from Germany and Britain.
Germany's Foreign Ministry has already issued travel warnings, urging the roughly 100,000 Germans currently on the island to avoid busy downtown spots.
So far, travel agencies have not reported major cancellations of Mallorca vacations, but officials on the island are eagerly waiting for arrests.
With the attack series, ETA certainly has issued a demonstration of strength at a time when the group celebrates its 50th anniversary. The recent bombings on Mallorca and an earlier one in mainland Spain that injured more than 50 people showed that ETA is still alive, despite some major police successes over the past years.
Intelligence cooperation with France has handed Spain's anti-terror police several successes, with four heads of ETA's military wing being arrested over the past 18 months. The death toll linked to ETA assassinations and bombings stands at 856, but their ability to kill has decreased.
While some ETA members have called for ending the killing, the core of the separatist group still believes in violence. The last cease-fire ended in late 2006 after only six months when ETA attacked Madrid's Barajas airport, killing two people.
Formed under the oppressive regime of Gen. Franco, Euskadi ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Freedom) for the past four decades has fought for an independent state in northern Spain and southwest France.
The violent resistance dates back to the 19th century, when religiously conservative Basques disapproved of the too liberal style of governance in Madrid, which aimed for more centralization. The Basque region as early as the Middle Ages enjoyed special privileges and autonomy, although they were not always fully honored by Madrid.
When the Francisco Franco government harshly cut some of those privileges and tried to destroy Basque nationalism, ETA formed itself as a militant resistance group aimed to end the oppression and install a fully independent Marxist-Leninist Basque state.
