A horrendous terrorist attack has claimed 190 lives and injured over 1,200 people in the Spanish city of Madrid. The attack, believed to be from the Basque separatist group ETA, involved ten coordinated bomb attacks on Madrid’s commuter rail system.
As in any terrorist attack, there should be no capitulation to the terrorists. If the ETA is indeed responsible for this atrocious attack, they should be immediately brought to justice using all available means. There is no political agenda which justifies the slaughter of innocent civilians.
The world must stand united against all groups that use terrorism and the murder of civilians to achieve their radical political ends.
UPDATE: CNN is reporting that the Spanish interior minister is announcing the find of a van with detonators and Arabic-language tapes… al-Qaeda may be the attackers rather than the ETA…
UPDATE: A group linked to al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
UPDATE: Here is a link to the CNN article on the possible Muslim connection. CNN doesn’t have the claim of responsibility yet – I’m trying to find a confirming source on that rumor.
Meanwhile Iberian Notes says that the attacks could be from the ETA. Josh Chafetz notes that the ETA doesn’t always announce terror attacks ahead of time, and sometimes only takes responsibility two days after an attack has taken place.
The ETA remain the prime suspects, although I would not at all be surprised if there was a link to al-Qaeda involved.
UPDATE: The explosive used was titadine, which is commonly used by the ETA in bombmaking.
UPDATE: The claim of al-Qaeda responsibility is discussed here. The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades are a known al-Qaeda wing responsible for several bombings in Turkey and Iraq.
Just talked to a student of “Spanish Studies” at my university. According to him, this attack does not resemble any of the previous ETA attacks. Apparently, ETA has so far always issued warnings beforehand (no warning this time). Also, previous ETA attacks have never had so many victims.
There is some concern that this might actually not be ETA (even though they were the first that would come to anyone’s mind…), but a new organization.
I’d be shocked if this were ETA. But even so, let’s remember that ETA’s proxies Batasuna, command a marginal support of the Basque electorate. The constitutional nationalist parties EAJ/PNV and Eusko Alkartasuna have opposed all political violence. They command the support of over 90% of the Basque nationalist electorate. Even if this is ETA, it should not be a condemnation of the Basque people. They did to try to fight for so long to eliminate the regime of one of the most evil men in 20th century Western Europe, General Franco.
FoxNews.com is reporting that al Qaeda has claimed responsibility.