Basque entrepreneur killed in Basque town of Azpeitia

Two gunmen believed to be ETA members shot dead a 71-year-old businessman in a carpark in the Basque town of Azpeitia on Wednesday.

The Basque entrepreneur was shot in the head in the Basque town ofAzpeitia, near San Sebastian. Two young male attackers later fled in acar, Basque police said.

The victim was identified as Ignacio Uria Mendizabal, and was one of the owners of construction company Altuna y Uria which is building a stretch of the high-speed train AVE long named by ETA as a target.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero described him asa hardworking man who was well known in the region and had spentdecades providing jobs as he worked to develop it. Zapatero vowed tohunt down his killers and said ETA is doomed in its
quest to create an independent homeland through bombs and bullets.

TheBasque regional president, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, called the shooting ofa 71-year-old man at close range as he got out of a car to go havelunch an act of cowardice.

The shooting happened a day before Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was due to visit the region to talk with Basque business people.

It follows the arrest in France just over two weeks ago of ETA's suspected chief, Garikoitz Aspiazu, nicknamed 'Txeroki' or 'Cherokee'.

ETA has said the building of the high-speed train link connecting the Basque cities of Vitoria, San Sebastian and Bilbao to the Spanish capital Madrid is not in the interests of Basque people.