Spain: 2 Chileans, Italian nabbed for church blast

MADRID (AP) Two Chileans and an Italian woman were among five people arrested Wednesday for setting off an explosive device in a cathedral last month, Spain's interior minister said.

They are suspected of forming part of an "extremely dangerous" anarchist group with international connections, said Jorge Fernandez Diaz.

A device exploded in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pilar in the northeastern city of Zaragoza on Oct. 2 while people were in the church. No one was injured and little damage was done.

A day later a little-known Spanish anarchist group called the Mateo Morral Commando claimed responsibility for the blast, saying it was because of the church's alleged links with Spain's fascist past.

In February, the group claimed responsibility for planting another device in Madrid's Almudena Cathedral, which police defused.

Diaz said the Chileans, who were arrested in the northeastern Mediterranean port city of Barcelona, had been investigated in Chile for similar actions, including one at the Los Sacramentos de Santiago de Chile church in 2009. Spanish authorities are in discussions with their counterparts in Chile, he said.

The Chileans were identified as Monica Andrea Caballero Sepulveda, 25, and Francisco Javier Solar Dominguez, 34.

The minister said the detained Italian woman, Valeria Giacomoni, 34, collaborated with the Chilean suspects. He gave no details on the other two persons arrested.