By Jason Webb MADRID, Sept 22 (Reuters) - A car bomb killed a soldier in northern Spain on Monday in the third attack in just over 24 hours by the Basque separatist group ETA, the government said. At least 12 other people were wounded in attacks which suggested ETA remains a potent threat, despite signs that some members of the group may be tiring of the armed struggle over traditional Basque territory. Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who broke off talks on a peace deal with ETA after a car bomb killed two people in late 2006, vowed to punish the attackers. "Their only future is to be arrested, tried and given extremely long prison sentences," Zapatero told reporters. The first of three car bombs exploded outside a bank branch in the Basque provincial capital Vitoria after an ETA warning call around midnight on Saturday, causing no casualties. Hours later, another bomb targeted a police station, wounding at least 11 people in the Basque town of Ondarroa. The third bomb, early on Monday, killed Luis Conde, a 46-year-old warrant officer in the Spanish army. He had been on holiday in the seaside town of Santona with his wife and staying in military accomModation. ETA have killed more than 800 people in four decades of fighting for the independence of the Basque Country from Spain. The attacks defied a crackdown by police who have arrested dozens of suspects, including suspected ETA leader Francisco Javier Lopez Pena. He was caught across the border in the French city of Bordeaux in May. SHOW OF FORCE Batasuna called for fresh peace talks when he was released from prison in August after a 15-month prison sentence. Two letters from ETA prisoners in Spanish jails also called the armed struggle into question. But political analysts said ETA may have carried out the three attacks in response to courts banning two more political parties accused of rebel links and jailing 21 people in two more blows to its support network. "ETA, despite its weakness, couldn't not act after a black week for its supporters," wrote Luis Aizpeolea in El Pais. Florencio Dominguez, a journalist for news agency Vasco Press who is known for his knowledge of ETA, said: "They'd gone for 18 months without a major terrorist offensive, because the police had hit them hard, and they needed a show of force firstly to their own supporters and secondly to the authorities." The bombings coincided with heightened tensions between Zapatero and the government of the Basque Country region, which already enjoys considerable autonomy from Madrid but wants more. The head of the Basque government, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, plans to complain to the European Court of Human Rights about Spain's refusal to allow a referendum-style vote about the region's future. ETA still hopes eventually to have negotiations with the government, Dominguez said. "ETA thinks there will be more talks with the government during this legislative period. That's what the terrorists are thinking. So what they're trying to do is to act tough ahead of these eventual talks," Dominguez said. But since winning re-election in March, Zapatero has taken a firm line against the rebels. His stance is close to that of the opposition conservatives and has made life easier for him in Congress as he tackles economic problems. (Additional reporting by Inmaculada Sanz in Madrid and Arantza Goyoaga in Bilbao, editing by Timothy Heritage)
