US officials discount Al Qaeda role: ETA denies hand in Madrid carnage
WASHINGTON, March 12: US officials said on Friday it was too early to tell whether the bombings in Spain were carried out by Al Qaeda or Basque separatists
, but they discounted the authenticity of a claim of responsibility attributed to Al Qaeda.
"At this point, it isn't clear who is responsible. We wouldn't rule anything out," a US counter-terrorism official said.
"What I would do is I would urge you to take with a grain of salt that claim of responsibility by that Abu Hafs Al Masri Brigades," the official said.
On Friday, the Basque group formally denied responsibility for the attacks, according to a Basque newspaper and a TV station.
A statement signed "Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigades/Al Qaeda" was received by an Arabic language newspaper in London on Thursday hours after 10 bombs ripped through commuter trains and railway stations in Madrid, killing 198 people in the worst terrorist attack in Spain's history.
The group also claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a Masonic lodge in Istanbul earlier this week and on Italian soldiers in Iraq.
The statement warned that an attack on the United States was imminent and said the bombings were "a settling of old scores with crusader Spain, America's ally in its war against Islam". But the US official said the group has made false claims in the past, including responsibility for massive blackouts on the US East Coast last year.
"They claim to be the voice of Al Qaeda but they're not. And I would urge you to treat that with scepticism. But it's still an open question in terms of who is responsible," the official said.
Suspicion initially centred on the Basque separatist group ETA, which has waged a 36-year campaign of bombings and assassinations against the Madrid government. But a new line of inquiry exploring possible Al Qaeda connections opened after Spanish authorities found seven detonators and a tape allegedly containing Quranic verses in a stolen van linked to the bombings.
US officials said other aspects of the attack appeared to run counter to ETA's normal mode of operation.
"The simultaneity of the explosions indicates maybe a little more aggressiveness, a little more sophistication," said a US defence official.
"Timing was really good on this. It could lead you to believe either they had assistance or it was another organization altogether," he said.
It was also unusual for ETA to deny responsibility for an attack that it had carried out, the counter-terrorism official said. The leader of ETA's political wing condemned the bombings and said it was inconceivable they were carried out by ETA.
Some aspects of the bombings were consistent with past ETA attacks, the official said.
"They have used unsophisticated devices like explosive packages or backpacks before," he said. "They've targeted in the past trains. They've also had explosives go off in close proximity to one another."
"They're relatively unsophisticated devices, which they certainly have the capability and the wherewithal to put together. But an attack of this magnitude that has inflicted this number of casualties, is a departure of what they have done in the past," he said.
The officials said they were unaware of any links in the past between ETA and Arab extremists groups, saying that was possible in this case but unlikely.
Al Qaeda is known to have a presence in Spain, which has a large Arab community and ancient ties with the Muslim world.
In a audio tape on Oct 18, Osama bin Laden had threatened retaliation against countries which supported the invasion of Iraq, mentioning Spain by name. -AFP
