A series of bombs hidden in backpacks exploded in quick
succession Thursday, blowing apart four commuter trains and killing
at least 192 people and wounding 1,200. Spain blamed Basque
separatists but a shadowy group claimed responsibility in the name
of al-Qaida for the worst terrorist attack in Spanish history.
Panicked commuters trampled on each other, abandoning their bags
and shoes, after two of the bombs went off in one train in the
Atocha station in the heart of Madrid. Train cars were turned into
twisted wrecks and platforms were strewn with corpses. Cell phones
rang unanswered on the bodies of the dead as frantic relatives
tried to call them.
"March 11, 2004, now holds its place in the history of infamy,"
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said.
The bombing came three days ahead of Spain's general election on
Sunday. A major campaign issue was how to deal with ETA, the Basque
militant group.
Campaigning for the election was called off and three days of
mourning were declared.
It was also exactly 2 1/2 years after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks in the United States, and was Europe's worst
since the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie,
Scotland, that killed 270 people.
The 10 backpack bombs exploded in a 15-minute span, starting
about 7:39 a.m., on trains along nine miles of commuter line from
Santa Eugenia to the Atocha terminal, a bustling hub for subway,
commuter and long-distance trains just south of the famed Prado
Museum. Police also found and detonated three other bombs.
"An act of barbaric terrorism has engulfed Spain with profound
pain, repulsion and anger," King Juan Carlos said on national
television.
Worst hit was a double-decker train at El Pozo station, where
two bombs killed 70 people, fire department inspector Juan Redondo
said. One corpse was blown onto the roof.
At the Santa Eugenia station, "there was one carriage totally
blown apart. People were scattered all over the platforms. I saw
legs and arms. I won't forget this ever. I've seen horror," said
Enrique Sanchez, an ambulance worker.
Forty coroners worked to identify remains, the national news
agency Efe said, and a steady stream of taxis carried relatives to
a sprawling convention center that was turned into a makeshift
morgue.
Three days of national mourning were declared and thousands of
people took part in spontaneous anti-terror rallies across the
country Thursday. The government called for nationwide anti-ETA
demonstrations on Friday evening, and millions were expected.
Who carried out the highly coordinated attack was a mystery. The
government put the Basque separatist group ETA at the top of its
list of suspects, although a shadowy group claimed responsibility
in the name of al-Qaida.
The Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi said it had received a
claim of responsibility issued in the name of al-Qaida. The e-mail
claim, signed by the shadowy Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, was
received at the newspaper's London offices and said the brigade's
"death squad" had penetrated "one of the pillars of the crusade
alliance, Spain."
"This is part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader,
and America's ally in its war against Islam," the claim said.
Spain had backed the US-led war on Iraq despite domestic
opposition, and many al-Qaida-linked terrorists have been captured
in Spain or were believed to have operated from there.
Spain's government is studying the reported al-Qaida claim but
still believes ETA is more likely responsible, a senior official in
Aznar's office said.
Spain's security forces were not ruling out "any line of
investigation," Interior Minister Angel Acebes said.
The United States believes Al-Masri sometimes falsely claims to
be acting on behalf of al-Qaida. The group took credit for
blackouts in the United States and London last year.
A US counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said it was too early to determine who was responsible.
The official noted that al-Qaida usually does not take
responsibility for attacks.
If the attack was carried out by ETA, it could signal a radical
and lethal change of strategy for the group that has largely
targeted police and politicians in its decades-long fight for a
separate Basque homeland.
But after police found a stolen van with seven detonators and the
Arabic-language tape parked in a suburb near where the stricken
trains originated, Acebes said: "I have just given instructions to
the security forces not to rule out any line of investigation."
A top Basque politician, Arnold Otegi, denied ETA was behind the
blasts and blamed "Arab resistance," noting Spain's support for the
Iraq war.
The government said ETA had tried a similar attack on Christmas
Eve, placing bombs on two trains bound for a Madrid station that
was not hit Thursday.
"ETA had been looking for a massacre," said Acebes, the interior
minister. "Unfortunately, today it achieved its goal."
The Interior Ministry said tests showed the explosives used in
the attacks were a kind of dynamite normally used by ETA.
The bombers used titadine, a kind of compressed dynamite also
found in a bomb-laden van intercepted last month as it headed for
Madrid, a source at Aznar's office said, speaking on condition of
anonymity. Officials blamed ETA then, too.
In a break with past ETA tactics, there were multiple attacks
and no advance warning. ETA has usually gone after one target at a
time and the largest casualty toll was 21 killed in 1987.
ETA has claimed responsibility for more than 800 deaths since
1968.
Sympathy poured in from capitals worldwide, led by Spain's
partners in the 15-nation European Union, and neighboring France
raised its terror alert level. In Athens, security also was
tightened at train stations and the Spanish Embassy, although
overall plans for the Aug. 13-29 Olympics will not change,
officials said.
The United States, Britain and Russia said the attacks
demonstrated the need for toughened resolve against terrorists.
President Bush called Aznar and Juan Carlos, saying he expressed
"our country's deepest sympathies toward those who lost their
life.
"I told them we weep with the families. We stand strong with the
people of Spain," he said.
Aznar was a staunch supporter of US-led war that ousted Saddam
Hussein and Spain sent 1,300 troops to Iraq.
Aznar, who himself survived an ETA car bombing in 1995, will
step down when a new government is formed after the elections.
Revulsion over the attack could benefit Aznar's ruling
conservative Popular Party because of its hard-line stance against
ETA.
Both the Popular Party and the opposition Socialists ruled out
talks with ETA during the campaign.
"No negotiation is possible or desirable with these assassins
who so many times have sown death all around Spain," Aznar
said.
The Socialists came in for withering criticism during the
campaign because a politician linked to the Socialist-run
government in the Catalonia region, which also has separatist
sentiment, admitted meeting with ETA members in France in January.
The Socialists were lambasted as allegedly undermining Spain's
fight against ETA.
The group -- Euskadi ta Askatasuna, or Basque Homeland and
Freedom -- is believed by police to number perhaps only several
dozen hard-core militants who are supported by a wider group of
Basque nationalists.
The government had recently expressed cautious optimism that ETA
was near defeat after mass arrests, seizures of weapons and
explosives, increased cooperation from France and the banning of
ETA's purported political front. The number of people killed in ETA
attacks dropped to three last year.
(China Daily March 12, 2004)
