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170 people killed in Madrid explosions
March 11, 2004
Powerful explosions rocked three Madrid train stations Thursday just days before Spain's general elections, killing more than 170 rush-hour commuters and wounding more than 500 in Spain's worst terrorist attack ever.
Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said there were indications the armed Basque separatist group ETA was to blame. "Right now we have to wait until we have an official statement. We don't have this official statement, so we just can say there are some hints and indications that point toward ETA," Palacio told the BBC.
Earlier, other politicians and media widely blamed ETA.
But Arnold Otegi, leader of Batasuna, an outlawed Basque party linked to the armed separatist group, denied it was behind the blasts and suggested "Arab resistance" elements were responsible.
Otegi told Radio Popular in San Sebastian that ETA always phones in warnings before it attacks. The interior minister said there was no warning before Thursday's attack.
Until the latest attack, 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.
On Feb. 29, police intercepted a Madrid-bound van packed with more than 1,100 pounds of explosives, and blamed ETA. On Christmas Eve, police thwarted an attempted bombing at Chamartin, another Madrid rail station, and arrested two suspected ETA members.
The Spanish national police said more than 170 people were killed and more than 500 were injured.
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.
Powerful explosions rocked three Madrid train stations Thursday just days before Spain's general elections, killing more than 170 rush-hour commuters and wounding more than 500 in Spain's worst terrorist attack ever.
Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said there were indications the armed Basque separatist group ETA was to blame. "Right now we have to wait until we have an official statement. We don't have this official statement, so we just can say there are some hints and indications that point toward ETA," Palacio told the BBC.
Earlier, other politicians and media widely blamed ETA.
But Arnold Otegi, leader of Batasuna, an outlawed Basque party linked to the armed separatist group, denied it was behind the blasts and suggested "Arab resistance" elements were responsible.
Otegi told Radio Popular in San Sebastian that ETA always phones in warnings before it attacks. The interior minister said there was no warning before Thursday's attack.
Until the latest attack, 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.
On Feb. 29, police intercepted a Madrid-bound van packed with more than 1,100 pounds of explosives, and blamed ETA. On Christmas Eve, police thwarted an attempted bombing at Chamartin, another Madrid rail station, and arrested two suspected ETA members.
The Spanish national police said more than 170 people were killed and more than 500 were injured.
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.