A car bombing was carried out by the

Basque separatist Basque nationalism ( ; ; ) is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation and promotes the political unity of the Basques, today scattered between Spain and France. Since i ...

organisation

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

on 16 September 1991 in the town of

Mutxamel Mutxamel (; ) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Alacantí, Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring ...

() near

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

. The target was the Civil Guard barracks in the town. However the bomb initially failed to explode near its target. The police treated the car as an abandoned vehicle, not realising that it contained a bomb and while being towed away, the car bomb exploded, killing two police officers and the civilian towing the car away. The bombing was the deadliest of the 40 attacks which ETA carried out in the

Province of Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: / ) is a province located in eastern Spain, in the southern part of the Valencian Community. It is the second most populated Valencian province, containing the second and third biggest cities in the Valencian Co ...

between 1979 and 2004.

The attack

ETA had carried out similar attacks against Civil Guard barracks in Zaragoza in 1987, killing 12 people, and in Vic three and a half months before the Mutxamel attack, killing ten people. The Mutxamel barracks was home to six Civil Guards, three of them married and living there with their families.Un coche bomba de ETA mata a dos policías locales y a un vecino de un pueblo de Alicante
El Pais, 17 September 1991 To commit the attack, ETA used a

Ford Fiesta The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car that was marketed by Ford from 1976 to 2023 over seven generations. Over the years, the Fiesta has mainly been developed and manufactured by Ford's European operations, and had been positioned below the ...

, bearing false number plates, which had been stolen months earlier in the Basque country, loading it with 50 kilos of explosives. They used an anti-theft bar, attached to the steering wheel, to guide the direction, ignition and gears and pushed the driverless car towards the barracks. However it missed its target, crashing instead into the wall of a nearby bank. Having failed to detonate the bomb, they abandoned the vehicle. An hour later, employees of the bank began arriving for work and notified the police of the vehicle. Believing that they were dealing with a simple traffic accident, potentially caused by a drunk driver who had panicked and abandoned his vehicle, the police ordered the vehicle to be towed away.La Vanguardia
p18, 17 September 1991 Inside the car pound, the bomb exploded, with the tow truck driver and the two police accompanying him killed instantly. A further 30 people were injured.

Convictions

In 1995, Gonzalo Rodriguez Cordero and Jose Gabriel Zabala Erasun were each sentenced to 136 years in prison for unlawful use of motor vehicles, unlawfully replacing license plates, possession of explosives and as participants in a crime of assault, three of murder, four of causing injuries and one of terrorism. In January 2007, three streets in the town were renamed in memory of the victims.
Las Provincias, 21 October 2011

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mutxamel attack ETA (separatist group) actions Car and truck bombings in Spain 1991 murders in Spain 1991 disasters in Spain Terrorist incidents in Europe in 1991 Terrorist incidents in Spain in the 1990s History of the province of Alicante Attacks on military installations in 1991 Car and truck bombings in 1991 September 1991 in Europe 20th-century mass murder in Spain Mass murder in 1991 Attacks on barracks in Spain Military history of the Valencian Community