From Fox News:
MADRID, Spain — At least 190 people were killed and 1,240 wounded Thursday after 10 bombs rocked three Madrid train stations during the height of the morning rush hour, just three days before Spain's general elections.
"This is mass murder," said a somber Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar (search) after an emergency Cabinet meeting, at which he vowed to hunt down the attackers and said he would not negotiate with the ETA (search) Basque separatist terror group, which is suspected of being behind the attacks.
"No negotiation is possible or desirable with these assassins who so many times have sown death all around Spain," Aznar said.
Police are looking for at least two people seen jumping on and off one of the trains at a station in Madrid. Police believe these individuals could have been planting the bombs.
As many as three more explosive devices were found in backpacks on the trains by police who defused them, Sky News reported.
The bombers used titadine (search), a kind of compressed dynamite also found in a bomb-laden van intercepted last month as it headed for Madrid, a source at Aznar's office said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Officials blamed ETA then, too.
Francisco Javier Ruperez, Spanish ambassador to the United States, told Fox News on Thursday that he has "no doubt" that the ETA was behind the attacks.
Ruperez, who was kidnapped by ETA in 1979, said there is "no smoking gun" linking Al Qaeda with ETA. "At the end of the day all of them tend to share the same sympathies ... the same aims," he said of terrorist organizations.
But a U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "It's too early to tell. We're not ruling anything out."
Mansoor Ijaz, a foreign affairs analyst for Fox News, said the attacks have all of the hallmarks of Al Qaeda, which now appears to be "joining hands with local terrorists."
"This represents a dangerous mutated version of what Al Qaeda has been doing in other parts of the world ... hitting three simultaneous targets, not necessarily in the same city but in the same area, with multiple explosions at each location."
Ijaz said Thursday's bombings are part of "an emerging pattern," citing the recent bombings in Iraq during the Shiite holiday and just before the Iraqi constitution was signed. He also noted that Spain is an American ally and about to hold an election.
Spanish officials called it the deadliest attack ever by ETA, but Arnold Otegi, leader of Batasuna (search), 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 and the interior minister said there was no warning before Thursday's explosions.
"The modus operandi, the high number of victims and the way it was carried out make me think ... it may have been an operative cell from the Arab resistance," Otegi said.
MADRID, Spain — At least 190 people were killed and 1,240 wounded Thursday after 10 bombs rocked three Madrid train stations during the height of the morning rush hour, just three days before Spain's general elections.
"This is mass murder," said a somber Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar (search) after an emergency Cabinet meeting, at which he vowed to hunt down the attackers and said he would not negotiate with the ETA (search) Basque separatist terror group, which is suspected of being behind the attacks.
"No negotiation is possible or desirable with these assassins who so many times have sown death all around Spain," Aznar said.
Police are looking for at least two people seen jumping on and off one of the trains at a station in Madrid. Police believe these individuals could have been planting the bombs.
As many as three more explosive devices were found in backpacks on the trains by police who defused them, Sky News reported.
The bombers used titadine (search), a kind of compressed dynamite also found in a bomb-laden van intercepted last month as it headed for Madrid, a source at Aznar's office said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Officials blamed ETA then, too.
Francisco Javier Ruperez, Spanish ambassador to the United States, told Fox News on Thursday that he has "no doubt" that the ETA was behind the attacks.
Ruperez, who was kidnapped by ETA in 1979, said there is "no smoking gun" linking Al Qaeda with ETA. "At the end of the day all of them tend to share the same sympathies ... the same aims," he said of terrorist organizations.
But a U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "It's too early to tell. We're not ruling anything out."
Mansoor Ijaz, a foreign affairs analyst for Fox News, said the attacks have all of the hallmarks of Al Qaeda, which now appears to be "joining hands with local terrorists."
"This represents a dangerous mutated version of what Al Qaeda has been doing in other parts of the world ... hitting three simultaneous targets, not necessarily in the same city but in the same area, with multiple explosions at each location."
Ijaz said Thursday's bombings are part of "an emerging pattern," citing the recent bombings in Iraq during the Shiite holiday and just before the Iraqi constitution was signed. He also noted that Spain is an American ally and about to hold an election.
Spanish officials called it the deadliest attack ever by ETA, but Arnold Otegi, leader of Batasuna (search), 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 and the interior minister said there was no warning before Thursday's explosions.
"The modus operandi, the high number of victims and the way it was carried out make me think ... it may have been an operative cell from the Arab resistance," Otegi said.
Comment