Paris, Safar 5, 1438, Nov 5, 2016, SPA -- The head of Spain's separatist ETA group has been arrested in France after eight years in hiding, the Spanish Interior Ministry said Saturday. Mikel Irastorza Artola, 41, was arrested in the Pyrenees-Atlantique region of south-western France near the Spanish border in a joint operation of the French intelligence agency and the Spanish civil guard, dpa reported. Spain's Interior Ministry said that Irastorza Artola operated at the head of the Basque separatist group ETA, directing its activities and serving as leadership, since the arrest in September 2015 of former leader David Pla e Iratxe Sorzabal. Two other people, a Spanish man and a French woman, were also arrested in Saturday's operation, on suspicion of collaborating with Irastorza Artola. --SPA 19:04 LOCAL TIME 16:04 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w