| Explosions in Madrid recalled the terrorist attacks in New York Early yesterday morning, Spain experienced the bloodiest terrorist attack in its history - about 200 dead, more than 1,200 wounded. Chilling reports from Madrid were reminiscent of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
At 7.39 am, three explosions occurred in an electric train that approached the platform of Madrid's Atocha station. Almost simultaneously, four more bombs exploded in another train, located half a kilometer from the station. Apparently, the terrorists hoped that two trains would arrive at the Atocha station at the same time and the explosion of seven bombs at once would collapse the huge glass vault above the station. In this case, the number of victims would have been much greater, but the second train was delayed by two minutes. Three more explosive devices went off on trains at Santa Eugenia and El Pozo stations.
The explosions were not carried out by suicide bombers. 15-kilogram explosive charges were placed in bags and left on trains in advance. Yesterday, secret services discovered and defused three unexploded time bombs in the carriages of mangled trains. The terrorists were counting on maximum casualties and planned bombings during the morning rush hour on the busiest commuter train lines linking the capital with the cities of Guadalajara, Alcala de Henares and the low-income suburbs of Madrid. Trains in this direction transport 900 thousand people daily. Many of those who died yesterday were schoolchildren and students rushing to the start of classes: the Santa Eugenia station is located next to the campus of the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
Vladimir Putin called Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar yesterday, expressed solidarity with the Spanish people and confirmed his readiness for the closest cooperation in the fight against the terrorist threat. As Alexander Solovsky, press attache of the Russian embassy in Madrid, told the Vremya Novostey newspaper, Spanish authorities are identifying the bodies, but the lists of the dead have not yet been made public. Representatives of the Spanish authorities over the phone read out to the embassy employees the names of the victims - none of them were similar to the Russian ones. However, the Atocha station area has traditionally been a meeting place for Russian-speaking citizens, mostly from Ukraine and Russia. There are many Ukrainian shops selling lard and sausage in this place.
Spanish intelligence services yesterday were searching for two suspects who at seven o'clock in the morning - half an hour before the train departed from Alcala de Henares to Madrid - entered and exited the train several times. In addition, a search is underway in the Basque city of San Sebastian, where a group of masked people the day before scattered leaflets with the slogans “No to Spain!” and threats against railway transport. The Spanish authorities consider members of the Basque terrorist organization ETA to be the perpetrators of the bloodshed. This version is supported by the type of explosive used yesterday - titadine, traditionally used by ETA bombers in recent years (ETA militants stole large quantities of titadine from several French enterprises).
In addition, Atocha Station was already the target of separatist terrorist attacks in 1979, when six people were killed in explosions. But most importantly, just a few days ago, Spanish police arrested two ETA militants who were driving a car with 536 kg of explosives to Madrid to carry out a large-scale terrorist attack. On Christmas Eve, police discovered a suitcase containing 25 kilograms of explosives on a passenger train traveling from the Basque Country to Madrid - an explosion was supposed to occur at the capital's Chamartin station. The two ETA terrorists who planted the bomb were arrested and found to be in possession of another suitcase of explosives.
However, the leader of the now banned Basque Batasuna party, Arnaldo Otegui, claims that yesterday's explosions are the work of the "Arab resistance" and are connected with the fact that "Spain is responsible for the war in Iraq and keeps occupation forces there." According to him, the style of yesterday’s terrorist attacks, designed to cause “the maximum number of casualties among the working population,” is not characteristic of ETA militants. Basque separatists usually target Spanish military, politicians or police officers and usually issue bomb warnings to avoid civilian casualties.
Yesterday's explosions occurred three days before parliamentary elections in Spain, which will take place on March 14 and will ultimately determine the name of the new Spanish prime minister. The terrorist attacks look like ETA's pre-election response to the election favorite - the ruling People's Party, which advocates an uncompromising fight against terrorists.
Europe is shocked - the Old World has not experienced such a bloody and large-scale atrocity for a long time. Eyewitnesses recall with particular horror the non-stop ringing of mobile phones among human remains. The living, in desperation, called those who were no longer alive. Explosions in electric trains were demonstrably inhuman in nature. By their scale and organization, they point more likely not to ETA, but to the international terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. It is quite possible that the same leaders of planetary terror were behind the terrorist attacks of March 11 and September 11. Andrey ZLOBIN |
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