Associated Press

Masked Basque police officers work near Bilbao, Spain, where Magistrate Jose Maria Lindon Corbi was shot dead yesterday by suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA. The killing comes a day after the group was blamed for a car bomb in Madrid that injured nearly 100 people.

MADRID, Spain - In a one-two jab, suspected Basque separatists shot a judge to death in northern Spain yesterday, a day after injuring nearly 100 people with a car bombing in Madrid.

The attacks dashed hopes that the group, ETA, might disarm in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, following the lead of the Irish Republican Army. More than 800 people have been killed during ETA's 33-year drive for an independent Basque homeland.

Yesterday, provincial judge Jose Maria Lidon Corbi, 50, was shot in the head as he drove out of his garage in Getxo on the outskirts of the Basque port city of Bilbao, police said.

His wife was in the car with him and one of their two sons was in another car nearby when at least two people carried out the attack, the Basque government said. Earlier reports placed all three in the same car.

Even before the IRA announcement that it was beginning to disarm, the Sept. 11 attacks prompted calls in Spain for a harder line on ETA. Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar is hoping worldwide outrage over terrorism will translate into greater support on both sides of the Atlantic for his campaign to crush the separatist group.

Yesterday's shooting was the fourth attack blamed on ETA since Sept. 11.

On Tuesday, ETA was blamed for a car bombing in Madrid that wounded 95 people. Police arrested a man and woman in connection with the bombing. Both were identified as ETA members.

ETA has no interest whatsoever in matching the IRA disarmament announcement, said Ramon Cotarelo, a political science professor at Complutense University in Madrid.

"These people have their own long-term project and don't give a darn about anything else," he said.

In reality, ETA is trying to deepen the conflict by pushing moderate Basque nationalists overtly into the pro-independence camp, Cotarelo said. "And it is succeeding," he said, citing an appeal by the Basque regional president, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, for a referendum on independence, an option not allowed under Spain's constitution.

Cotarelo called an ETA statement last month acknowledging a steep drop in support in May regional elections for ETA's political wing and expressing openness to talks with the government an empty gesture.

ETA has not changed a bit since Sept. 11, said Jose Maria Fernandez of Judges for Democracy, a judicial think tank and lobbying group. "To the contrary, it seems they are more bent than ever on causing pain and destruction," he said.

ETA broke off a 14-month-old cease-fire in January 2000, saying the peace process was stillborn after a single round of talks. Since then, it has claimed or been blamed for 36 killings, 13 of them this year.

Aznar has ruled out more peace talks.

The group, whose Basque-language initials stand for Basque Homeland and Freedom, typically targets security force members and politicians in its attacks.