Road Sign With Spray Painted ETA Logo Editorial Photo

A road sign in the French Basque Country spray painted with the logo of Basque armed group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ETA. ETA was an armed Basque nationalist and separatist terrorist organization in the Basque Country in northern Spain and southwestern France. The group was founded in 1959 and later evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group engaged in a violent campaign of bombing, assassinations, and kidnappings in the Southern Basque Country and throughout Spanish territory. Its goal was gaining independence for the Basque Country. ETA was the main group within the Basque National Liberation Movement and was the most important Basque participant in the Basque conflict. Between 1968 and 2010, it killed 829 people including 340 civilians and injured thousands more. ETA was classified as a terrorist group by Spain, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. There are more than 260 imprisoned former members of the group in Spain, France, and other countries.