posted March 11, 2004 05:31 PM
The New York Times
March 11, 2004Spain Struggles to Absorb Worst Terrorist Attack in Its History
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
MADRID, March 11 — In the bloodiest terrorist attack in modern Spanish history, 10 bombs exploded during the this morning's rush hour in three commuter train stations here. The Interior Ministry said more than 190 people were killed and more than 1,200 wounded.
Three other bombs were discovered and detonated by the police in the highly coordinated explosions, which went off within a 10-minute period.
As the country struggled to absorb the carnage just three days before general elections, Prime Minister José María Aznar appeared on television and called the attacks "mass murder." He vowed that Spain would never negotiate with "these assassins."
Mr. Aznar added, "March 11 now has it place in the history of infamy."
Already some Spaniards are calling the attacks the country's "9/11," and the front page of a special edition of the biggest daily, El Pais, this afternoon ran the headline, "11-M."
There was no advance warning of the attacks. At first, the Spanish authorities blamed E.T.A., the Basque group that has been seeking independence from Spain for more than three decades.
Later today, however, the Interior Ministry said the police had found a van with detonators and an Arabic-language tape of Koranic verses, according to news agencies, and that it was considering all lines of investigation.
An Arabic newspaper, Al-Quds al-Arabi, said it had received a claim of responsibility for the train bombings issued in the name of Al Qaeda.
The five-page e-mail claim, signed by the shadowy Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, was received at the paper's London offices. It 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.
The government declared a three-day period of mourning, and political parties participating in the elections called off all remaining campaign events, although elections will proceed as scheduled.
"All of Spain is suffering," said Mariano Rajoy, the front-runner and leader of the governing Popular Party, who has made the war on terrorism a centerpiece of his campaign and pledged to follow Mr. Aznar's policies. "This is a moment to put aside differences and show unity with the victims and their families."
Most of the victims were ordinary middle- and working-class people and university students commuting into Madrid, although children were also among the dead.
At the main Atocha commuter station in the heart of Madrid, just a block from the Prado Museum, an explosion cut a train in two, sending pieces of metal high into the air. Bloody victims crawled from mangled train cars and staggered into the streets. Other victims were found burned to death in their seats.
There, as at the nearby Santa Eugenia and El Pozo stations, broken bodies and body parts were thrown along the platforms; in the aftermath, rescue workers unused to massive terrorist attacks struggled to separate the dead from the wounded.
Amet Oulabid, a 23-year-old carpenter, said he got off the front of the train at the Atocha station just seconds before the bomb went off in one of its rear cars.
"I saw bodies flying," he said. "There was a security guard dripping with blood. People were pushing and running. I saw a woman who had fallen on the tracks because people were pushing so hard. I escaped with my life by a hair."
At El Pozo, just east of downtown Madrid, Luz Elena Bustos, 42, got off a nearby bus just 10 minutes before the explosion at that station.
"There were pieces of flesh and ribs all over the road," she said. "There were ribs, brains all over. I never saw anything like this. The train was blown apart. I saw a lot of smoke, people running all over, crying. I saw part of a hand up to the elbow and a body without a head face down on the ground. Flesh all over. I started to cry from nerves. There was a 3-year-old boy all burnt and a father was holding him in his arms, crying."
People combed the city's major hospitals in search of family members believed to be aboard the trains.
"Ay, please, God, this can't be happening," said Carmen Gómez, 47, sobbing as she studied a patient list — in vain — at Gregorio Marañón hospital, seven hours after the terrorist attack. She said her friend's 25-year-old daughter was aboard a train bound for Atocha station, but after traveling to four major hospitals, they had not yet located her. "How could a human being do this, how could a human being do this?" she asked.
The bombs, which were contained in plastic bags and backpacks, began exploding at about 7:50 a.m. The police quickly sealed off the bomb sites and blocked off surrounding streets; police helicopters flew over Madrid throughout the day, amid predictions that there could be other attacks.
The police had been put on a terror alert for a possible terrorist attack as the country prepares to go to the polls.
But the attacks clearly took Mr. Aznar, his government and the Spanish people by surprise. In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Aznar, who survived an E.T.A. attack years ago, boasted that terrorism "is a lot weaker than it was."
The security situation seemed so stable that King Juan Carlos attended the soccer match between Spain's star-studded Real Madrid team and Munich on Wednesday evening.
Today, the king, accompanied by his wife, Queen Sofía, their son and heir, Prince Felipe, and his fiancée, Letizia Ortiz, visited a hospital in central Madrid to comfort survivors and their families.
The attacks on Madrid's busiest commuter train stations at the height of rush hour was clearly designed to inflict maximum civilian casualties, attract the world's attention and illustrate that Spain is not safe.
Despite overwhelming popular opposition, Spain was one of the most fervent supporters of the American-led war in Iraq and there are 1,300 Spanish troops on Iraqi soil. Last October, two audiotapes reportedly made by Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, said that his group had the "right to respond at any suitable time and place" against countries with forces in Iraq, listing Spain as one of his targets.
If the Basque group is responsible for today's bombings, it would be its deadliest attack; it killed 21 people in a supermarket blast in Barcelona in 1987. But E.T.A. has been severely damaged by cooperation between Spain and France, and last year, E.T.A. killed 3 people, compared with 23 in 2000 and 15 in 2001.
E.T.A. almost always gives warnings in advance and claims responsibility, and has never conducted an attack of this magnitude. But according to one Spanish government official, the bombers used a kind of dynamite also found in the bomb-laden van intercepted last month.
Arnaldo Otegi, leader of Batasuna, E.T.A.'s political wing, which has been banned in Spain, said E.T.A. probably was not behind the attacks, saying that the attack could have been the work of "Arab resistance."
Oh dear. 
and 
to Spain. 
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