Another Bomb in Spain

mike65

This from www.aljazeera.net

Bomb found on Spanish train line

Friday 02 April 2004, 19:01 Makka Time, 16:01 GMT


Pollice in Spain have found a bomb on a high-speed rail line between Madrid and Seville, Interior Minister Angel Acebes has said.

Bomb-disposal experts alerted by a railway employee on Friday found 10-12 kilograms of explosives, possibly dynamite, under a track about 60kms south of Madrid on the line to the southern city of Seville, Acebes said.

The explosives were connected to a detonator with a 136-metre cable, the minister told a news conference.

He said it was not immediately known who placed the bomb.

"As we get information regarding those possibly responsible or details that move the investigation forward, we will give them to you," Acebes told reporters.

Busy day

Friday was a busy travel day in Spain, with trains and highways full of people leaving home for Easter vacation.

The state rail company RENFE said no train was close to the bomb when it was detected.

The line serves mainly Spain's AVE high-speed trains, which have a maximum speed of 300kms per hour, but a smaller number of slower trains also use it, RENFE said.

The discovery of the bomb came less than a month after 10 backpack bombs ripped through four commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring more than 1800.

The focus of that investigation is a Moroccan group with alleged links to al-Qaida. The bombs were detonated with cell phones attached to the explosives.

The Basque separatist group ETA has also targeted Spanish rail lines in the past.

On Thursday, police in northern Spain defused three letter bombs addressed to journalists in Madrid.

Acebes said the origin of the letters has not been determined, although the mechanism of the explosives is "similar to those that have been used by anarchist groups on previous occasions."

Makes you wonder if its oppotunist Islamics or a really stupid ETA move..(or of course the work of the CIA/Mossad/MI6/ etc)

Mike.

martarg

Makes you wonder if its oppotunist Islamics or a really stupid ETA move..(or of course the work of the CIA/Mossad/MI6/ etc)

Well, at this point, whoever it was, it makes me equally tired and disgusted. However, if it happened to be ETA, I don't know how it would make it any more stupid than other stuff they have done, if stupid is the right word for what they do...

daveirl

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MeatProduct

There is very little mention about how the bomb was found by the rail employee. Like it was supposed to be found perhaps? Just more fear-mongering perhaps.

Nick

Doctor Funfrock

Another bomb explosion in Madrid, worrying

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

mike65

The above link content -

At least three men suspected of involvement with the Madrid train bombings have died in an explosion in a suburb of the Spanish capital.

Interior Minister Angel Acebes said the blast was set off by the suspects as police closed in on an apartment in Leganes, south of Madrid.

One policeman was killed and 11 others hurt in the blast, some seriously.

Police said they had been looking for three men in connection with the 11 March attacks on trains in Madrid.

The interior ministry said the suspects who died were probably among six men for whom a judge last week issued international arrest warrants in connection with the Madrid attacks.

The six include a Tunisian, identified as Sarhane ben Abdelmajid Fakhet and described as the leader of the cell.


"The special police agents prepared to storm the building and when they started to execute the plan, the terrorists set off a powerful explosion, blowing themselves up," Mr Acebes said.

"There are three that blew themselves up, but the possibility of more is not ruled out."

The BBC's Katya Adler in Madrid says the minister refused to identify the men, but Spanish media describe them as young Islamist militants of Moroccan origin.

'Chanting in Arabic'

Mr Acebes said the police operation began on Saturday, when security officers approached an apartment in a block in Leganes.

The suspects spotted them from a window and they "started shooting from the apartment, chanting in Arabic", he said.

Police then evacuated residents in the building and the surrounding area, and cordoned it off.

A team then re-entered the apartment block, on Irene Fernandez street.

Mr Acebes said it was at that point that the suspects set off a huge explosion in the apartment that the police were seeking to search, in an attempt to resist arrest.

Mr Acebes said it was possible a fourth person had escaped the area before it was cordoned off by police.

Spanish media report that the body of a woman has been found in the apartment block's outside swimming pool.

Spain has been on high alert since the 11 March attacks
The explosion sent a shower of shattered glass into the air and thick grey smoke billowed over the area. Frightened residents crowded onto the nearby streets.

"This is a very quiet neighbourhood... But it's places like this where these people try to hide," a resident told Reuters news agency.

Neighbours said a group of North Africans had moved into the apartment about a month ago. They were rarely seen and the blinds were always drawn, the neighbours said.

Some 20 families were put up in a hotel overnight because they could not return to their damaged homes.

Police later lifted the cordon and traffic resumed, according to Spanish news agency Efe.


Spain has detained 15 suspects and provisionally charged them in connection with the Madrid train blast. Six of them have been charged with multiple counts of murder, and nine have been accused of collaborating with or belonging to a terrorist organisation.

Eleven of the 15 suspects are Moroccan.

The Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group is the main focus of police investigations.

On Saturday, Mr Acebes said tests had confirmed that an unexploded bomb found on a high-speed railway line on Friday contained the same explosive as the Madrid bombs.

Spain must be feeling under seige right now. The local north African population who are viewed with some suspision anyway are also a great risk from a backlash if Islamic terrorists should succeed to killing any more civilians.

Dare I say it also proves that Al-Queda don't give a damn who wins an election its a fight to the finnish for them.

Mike.

martarg

Because wierd as it sounds a terrorist group like ETA actually care to some degree what their supporters think about them. Bit like the IRA and Enniskillen, they lost a lot of support over that. People may be able to accept killing soldiers and but civilians is a different matter.

Same thing in Spain, people who support Basque independence might think killing politicians is fair game, but they wouldn't necessarily support blowing up trains.

I suppose we have a different perception of the whole radical Basque world. As I said once before, I cannot claim to be objective, but unfortunately I have my reasons to be biased against ETA. In any case I am not sure that one can measure ETA by what they think or know about the IRA. IRA and ETA members and sympathisers do not have the same cultural or historical background, and their attitudes and opinions about certain subjects may not always coincide.

Obviously I cannot read the mind of ETA's supporters, but I am sorry to say that from where I stand, listening to their words and looking at their deeds, I can only see hatred and xenophobia. I cannot be too sure that Batasuna's radical following has a lot of sympathy for non-Basque civilians, I rather think they are all the enemy to them. ETA has targeted civilians more than once (ETA is not fighting against an occupying force, as might be the case with the British army (?), but against the whole apparatus of Spanish democracy, from politicians, to security forces, to writers, to regular citizens), and that has never had any adverse effect on their supporters.

I have never, ever, heard a word of sympathy for victims or their families, whoever they were. Non-civilians were "legitimate targets", civilians were in the way, whoops, too bad. If they were not pure-breed negative-Rh Basques, they were Spanish oppressors anyway. the "struggle" warrants anything. Of course I suppose that not every single Batasuna supporter feels that way, but put to the choice, they would rather say "ah, well" and side with ETA, than hint at the slightest condemnation of the "brave warriors'" actions. The "cause" is always more important than the human lives that may be lost in the process.

In any case, I will strain my powers of objectivity to the utmost (hmppfff ) and remind myself that even if I don't see it, perhaps, who knows, they are human as well, a 200-victim massacre could have been too much for Batasuna followers.... I only wish it didn't take so much, when they already have over 800 on their books....

Well, that said, perhaps now I should turn to talk about Al Qaeda....

gurramok

Just my tuppence...Congratulations to the spanish authorities for catching alot of the bombers dead or alive.
Lets hope any remaining scum that was involved in the atrocity are still not at large.