(SAYING) Aguerre said that in the 1980s and 1990s, authorities arrested key ETA members every few years.

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French and Spanish authorities have arrested five other ETA leaders during the past two years.

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ETA is blamed for the deaths of more than 800 people during the past four decades, with most of the assassinations taking place in Spain.

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ETA has increasingly lost support among ordinary Basques, partly because of its bloody tactics.

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Aguerre believes ETA will eventually be eradicated, but it is impossible to say when.

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Among those nabbed was ETA's presumed military chief, Mikel Karrera Sarobe,and two others.

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French ETA expert Christian Aguerre says the arrests underscore the group's increasing weakness.

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If confirmed, the arrest of ETA's military chief is the latest in a series setbacks for the separatist group, which has waged a bloody campaign for an independent Basque state in parts of northern Spain and southwestern France.

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