Bomb blasts rip through Madrid trains; 190 killed:Slaughter in Spain
MADRID, March 11: A series of explosions which ripped through four commuter trains at rush hour in Madrid on Thursday killed 190 people and injured 1,247, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
Judicial sources confirmed the death toll and said that some 181 people had died at the three railway stations ravaged by the blasts, while a further nine victims died in ambulances or on arrival in hospital.
The Spanish government blamed the attacks, only three days ahead of general elections, on Basque separatist guerilla group ETA. The outlawed group is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the 10 rush-hour blasts three days before Spain votes in a general election, but Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's government blamed the Basque separatist group ETA.
Immediately after the bombings, the radical Basque party, banned for refusing to condemn the armed separatist group ETA, has "absolutely rejected" the synchronised bomb attacks.
Batasuna, accused by the government of being an integral part of ETA, has never before rejected ETA attacks. An Interior Ministry source declined to comment on the Batasuna statement. Authorities have blamed ETA, which is listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States.
Officials brushed aside suggestions Muslim activists angry at Spain's support for the US-led war in Iraq could have been behind the bombs, which tore people including a baby to shreds, and left pools of blood on wrecked trains, tracks and buildings.
"It is absolutely clear that the terrorist organisation ETA was seeking an attack with wide repercussions," Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes told a hastily called news conference.
Later in the day, Interpol offered Spain its full support in the investigation into the multiple bomb blasts, the international police organisation said.
"Officers in the Criminal Analysis Unit are examining all Interpol databases to determine whether any links can be drawn between this terrorist act and other incidents around the world," the organization said in a statement.
It said Interpol's Secretary General Ronald K. Noble held talks with Interpol's Spanish representative Jesus Espigares Mira immediately following the blasts.
Interpol also offered to send experts from its disaster victim identification network to help Spanish authorities identify victims of the blasts, which Madrid has blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA.
US intelligence agencies said it was too early to decide who was behind the attack, but saw the hallmarks of both ETA and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda. "There are characteristics of each. You have multiple attacks, multiple explosions in different locations in a short period of time which is very Al Qaeda-ish," said one US official, who declined to be identified.
"The train was cut open like a can of tuna... We didn't know who to treat first. There was a lot of blood, a lot of blood," said ambulance driver Enrique Sanchez, at Atocha station in central Madrid.
Passenger Ana Maria Mayor's voice cracked as she told reporters: "I saw a baby torn to bits." The other blasts occurred at El Pozo station in southern Madrid and at Santa Eugenia in the southeast of the capital. Mr Aznar called on Spaniards to take to the streets on Friday in protest at the attack and vowed the government would arrest the "criminals" behind it.
FIGHT FOR SECESSION: ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna) has killed around 850 people since 1968 in its fight for a separate Basque homeland in northwest Spain and southwest France, and has been branded a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.
Late last month, police arrested two suspected ETA members heading for Madrid with a van containing 500 kg of explosives, averting a possible attack. If the Basque group was responsible for Thursday's bombings, it would be its deadliest attack.
It was the biggest death toll in an attack in Europe since December 1988, when a Pan American World Airways Boeing 747 crashed on the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 aboard after a bomb on the plane exploded.-Reuters/AFP
Al Qaeda claims bombings
DUBAI: A statement attributed to Al Qaeda and sent to the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi claimed responsibility for the deadly series of bombings in Madrid on Thursday and a suicide attack on a masonic lodge in Istanbul two days earlier.
The claim could not be independently verified. However, in Madrid, Spain's interior minister Angel Acebes claimed that a suspect van had been found on Thursday near the scene of bombings, containing seven detonators and a tape in Arabic language. -Reuters
