Powerful explosions rocked three Madrid train stations Thursday just three days before Spain's general elections, killing 131 rush-hour commuters and wounding more than 400 in what officials called the deadliest attack ever by the Basque separatist group ETA.
"This is a massacre," government spokesman Eduardo Zaplana said.
In the first attack of the year blamed on ETA, bombs exploded around 7:30 a.m. local time in a commuter train arriving at Atocha station, a bustling hub for subway, commuter and long-distance trains in Spain's capital.
Blasts also rocked trains or platforms at two stations on a commuter line leading to Atocha. The government said there were four blasts altogether.
People in tears streamed away from the station as rescue workers carried bodies covered in sheets of gold fabric. People with bloodied faces sat on curbs, using cellphones to tell loved ones they were alive. Hospitals appealed for blood donations. Buses had to be pressed into service as ambulances.
The attacks traumatized Spain on the eve of Sunday's general election.
The campaign was largely dominated by separatist tensions in regions like the Basque country, with both the ruling conservative Popular Party and the opposition Socialists ruling out talks with ETA.
But the Socialists came in for withering criticism because a politician linked to the Socialist-run government in the Catalonia region, which also has separatist sentiment, admitted meeting with ETA members in France in January. The Socialists were lambasted as allegedly undermining Spain's fight against ETA.
[...]
"There was one carriage totally blown apart. People were scattered all over the platforms. I saw legs and arms. I won't forget this ever. I've seen horror."
[...]
"People started to scream and run, some bumping into each other and as we ran there was another explosion. I saw people with blood pouring from them, people on the ground," Fernandez said.
At least 131 people were killed and more than 400 were injured, said Pedro Calvo, the Madrid regional government's security affairs chief.
There was no claim of responsibility, but officials immediately blamed ETA. The toll would make Thursday the deadliest day ever in decades of attacks by ETA. Until now, the highest death toll was 21 killed in a supermarket blast in Barcelona in 1987.
Until Thursday, ETA had been blamed for more than 800 deaths in its decades-old campaign to carve an independent Basque homeland out of territory straddling northern Spain and southwest France.
[Sound familiar? Just like "Palestine," Kashmir and Chechnya.--Jen]
Spanish officials had said ETA was against the ropes following the arrest last year of more than 150 members or collaborators in Spain and France, including the leaders of ETA's commando network. Last year ETA killed three people, compared to 23 in 2000 and 15 in 2001.
TA often phones in warnings before detonating bombs, but this time it did not, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said. The bombs went off at the peak of the morning rush hour. No arrests were reported.
"Those responsible for this tragedy will be arrested and they will pay very dearly for it," Acebes said at Atocha.
The government convened anti-ETA rallies nationwide for Friday evening.
"What a horror," said the Basque regional president, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, who insisted ETA does not represent the Basque people. "When ETA attacks, the Basque heart breaks into a thousand pieces," he said in the Basque capital Vitoria.
"This is one of those days that you don't want to live through," said opposition Socialist party spokesman Jesus Caldera. "ETA must be defeated," referring to the group as "those terrorists, those animals."
In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called the attacks terrorist atrocities and a "disgusting assault on the very principle of European democracy."
Straw said that Britain stood "shoulder to shoulder" with Spain and was ready to send any kind of material help needed.
Elsewhere, European Parliament President Pat Cox said the bomb attacks amounted to "a declaration of war on democracy."
"No more bombs, no more dead," Cox said in Spanish before a hushed legislature in Strasbourg, France. "It is an outrageous, unjustified and unjustifiable attack on the Spanish people and Spanish democracy."
I've run out of words to express my psychic shock and horror at this kind of attack since our 9/11 and the Intifada in Israel.
I promise you, Al Queda was involved with this to the max-- numerous links and evidence of cooperation between Al Queda and ETA have been found long before today.
In addition, Spain has made itself a target for being our strong and visible ally in the WOT.
Further, Osama (and his Islamofascist killers) has said on more than one occasion that the radical Muslims want Spain back, so that they can restore the glory days of Islam as they dreamed it was before they were expelled by the Spanish in 1492.
Espana, I am so dreadfully sorry it came to your country this way, but bienvenidos to the Global War on (Islamist) Terrorism.
God rest the souls of the dead and may He heal those who have been wounded.
UPDATE: John is blogging the news from Barcelona at his fine blog Iberian Notes.
Check there for the latest news.
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