2004 Madrid train bombings

March 2004 Madrid Train Bombings
File:Ac.madrid2.jpg The scene of one of the Madrid bombings.
Location	Madrid, Spain
Date	11 March 2004 07:30 – 08:00 (UTC+1)
Target	Madrid Commuter Train System
Attack type	Backpack bombs
Deaths	191
Injured	2050 [7]

The 2004 Madrid train bombings (also known as 11-M, 3/11, 11/3 and M-11) consisted of a series of coordinated bombings against the Cercanías (commuter train) system of Madrid, Spain on the morning of 11 March 2004, killing 191 people and wounding 2,050.

The alleged perpetrators were Islamist extremists, mostly of North African origin. Spanish nationals who provided the explosives were also arrested.

It is the only terrorist act in history, according to the European Strategic Intelligence And Security Center, where non-Muslims collaborated with Muslims.

The official investigation by the Spanish Judiciary determined the attacks were directed by an al-Qaeda inspired terrorist cell. Direct al-Qaeda participation has not been established

Description of the bombings

Plaque in memory of the casualties in the 11-M terror attack in Madrid

During the peak of Madrid rush hour on the morning of Thursday, 11 March 2004, ten explosions occurred aboard four commuter trains (cercanías). All the affected trains were traveling on the same line and in the same direction between Alcalá de Henares and Atocha station in Madrid. It was later reported that thirteen improvised explosive devices (IEDs) had been placed on the trains. Bomb-disposal teams had dealt with two of the remaining three IEDs. The following time-line of events comes from the judicial investigation.

All four explosives-laden trains had departed the station Alcalá de Henares between 07:01 and 07:14. The explosions took place between 07:37 and 07:40 in the morning, as described below (all timings given are in local time UTC/GMT+1):

• Atocha Station (train number 21431) — Three bombs exploded. Based on the video recording from the station security system, the first bomb exploded at 7:37, and two others exploded within 4 seconds of each other at 7:38.
• Calle Tellez, (train number 17305), approximately 800 meters from Atocha Station — Four bombs exploded in different carriages of the train at approximately 7:39.
• El Pozo del Tío Raimundo Station (train number 21435) — At approximately 07:38, just as the train was starting to leave the station, two bombs exploded in different carriages.
• Santa Eugenia Station (train number 21713) — One bomb exploded at approximately 07:38.

At 08:00, emergency relief workers began arriving at the scenes of the bombings. The police reported numerous victims and spoke of 50 wounded and several dead. By 08:30 the emergency ambulance service, SAMUR (Servicio de Asistencia Municipal de Urgencia y Rescate), had set up a field hospital at a sports facility at Daoiz y Velarde. Hospitals were told to expect the arrival of many casualties. Bystanders and local residents helped relief workers. At 08:43, fire fighters reported 15 dead at El Pozo. By 09:00, the police had confirmed the death of at least 30 people —20 at El Pozo and about 10 in Santa Eugenia and Atocha.

Forty-one of the dead came from thirteen countries outside of Spain, including fifteen from Romania, five each from Ecuador and Peru, four from Poland, three from Colombia, two from Honduras, and one each from Bulgaria, Chile, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, France, and Morocco. The number of victims was higher than in any similar event in Spain, far surpassing the 21 killed and 40 wounded from a 1987 bombing at a Hipercor chain supermarket in Barcelona. On that occasion, responsibility was claimed by the Basque armed militant group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ("Basque Fatherland and Liberty"), or ETA. It was also the worst incident of this kind in Europe since the Lockerbie bombing in 1988.

The Prosecutor, Olga Sánchez, asserted that the bombings happened 911 days after 9/11 due to (her own words) the "highly symbolic and qabbalistic charge for local al-Qaida groups" of choosing that day.

Further bombings spur investigation

Another bombing, this time on the track of a high-speed train (AVE), was attempted on 2 April but was unsuccessful. Shortly after, police identified an apartment in Leganés, south of Madrid, as the base of operations for the individuals suspected of being the material authors of the Madrid and AVE attacks. The suspected militants, headed by Jamal Zougam, Serhane Abdelmaji "the Tunisian" and Jamal Ahmidan "the Chinese", were trapped inside the apartment by a police raid on the evening of Saturday 3 April. At 9:03 pm, when the police started to assault the premises, the militants committed suicide by setting off explosives, killing themselves and one of the police officers. Investigators subsequently found that the explosives used in the Leganés explosion were of the same type as those used in the 11 March attacks (though it had not been possible to identify a brand of dynamite from samples taken from the trains) and in the thwarted bombing of the AVE line.

Based on the assumption that the militants killed at Leganés were, indeed, the individuals responsible for the train bombings, the ensuing investigation focused on how they obtained their estimated 200 kg of explosives. The investigation revealed that they had been bought from a retired miner who still had access to blasting equipment.

Five to eight suspects believed to be involved in the 11 March attacks managed to escape. ABC reported in December, 2006 that the ETA reminded Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero about the March 11 2004 as an example of what could happen unless the Government considered their petitions.

Aftermath

Main article: Aftermath of the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings

Makeshift shrine for the victims of the attacks

In France, the Vigipirate plan was upgraded to orange level. In Italy, the Government declared a state of high alert.

On December 2004 José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero claimed that the PP government wiped off the all the computer files related with the Madrid bombings, leaving only the documents on paper.

It has been reported (El País, 4 January, 2007) that new attacks were being prepared in Spain by alleged perpetrators of the 2004 Madrid train bombings.

Responsibility

According to the Spanish judiciary, a loose group of Moroccan, Syrian, and Algerian Muslims inspired by al-Qaeda and two Guardia Civil and Spanish police informants are suspected of having carried out the attacks. As of 11 April 2006, Judge Del Olmo charged 29 suspects for their involvement in the train bombings.

Direct al-Qaeda involvement has been discarded, although an al-Qaeda claim was made the day of the attacks by the Abu Hafs al Masri Brigades. U.S. officials note that this group is "notoriously unreliable"

According to The Independent, "Those who invented the new kind of rucksack bomb used in the attacks are said to have been taught in training camps in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, under instruction from members of Morocco's radical Islamist Combat Group."

According to the MIPT, the attack was carried out by individuals associated with the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group.

According to Mohamed Darif, a professor of political science at Hassan II University in Mohammedia, the history of the Moroccan Combat Group is directly tied to the rise of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. According to Darif, "Since its inception at the end of the 1990s and until 2001, the role of the organisation was restricted to giving logistic support to al-Qaeda in Morocco, finding its members places to live, providing them with false papers, with the opportunity of marrying Moroccans and with false identities to allow them to travel to Europe. Since 11 September, however, which brought the Kingdom of Morocco in on the side of the fight against terrorism, the organisation switched strategies and opted for terrorist attacks within Morocco itself."

Immediate reactions to the attacks in Spanish media assumed ETA involvement, and government officials were ready to confirm such suspicions. Because the bombs were 3 days before the general elections in Spain, the situation had many political interpretations. The massacre took place exactly two and a half years (912 days) after the September 11 terrorist attack on America in 2001. (Others suggest, however, that terrorists wishing to emphasize a connection with 9/11 would not rely on such an oblique connection as its "2 1/2 year anniversary.")

Official statements issued shortly after the Madrid attacks identified ETA as the prime suspect, but the group, which usually claims responsibility for its actions, denied any wrongdoing.Later evidence strongly pointed to the involvement of extremist Islamist groups, with the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group named as a focus of investigations.

Although ETA has a history of mounting bomb attacks in Madrid, planting delayed-action bombs to kill rescue workers and using booby traps (such as explosives in wallets), as well as also having attempted to attack trains, the 11 March attacks were on a scale far exceeding anything previously attempted by any European terrorist organisation. This led some experts to point out that the tactics used were more typical of Islamic militant extremist groups, perhaps with a certain link to al-Qaeda, or maybe to a new generation of ETA activists using al-Qaeda as a role model. Observers also noted that ETA customarily issues warnings before its mass bombings and that there had been no warning for this attack. Europol director Jürgen Storbeck commented that the bombings ""could have been Eta ... But we're dealing with an attack that doesn't correspond to the modus operandi they have adopted up to now,"".. Yusuf Galan, a former ETA member, was charged for involvement in al-Qaida

All of the devices are thought to have been hidden inside backpacks. The police investigated reports of three people in ski masks getting on and off the trains several times at Alcalá de Henares between 7:00 and 7:10. A Renault Kangoo van was found parked outside the station at Alcalá de Henares containing detonators, audio tapes with Qur'anic verses, and cell phones.

The provincial chief of TEDAX (the bomb disposal experts of the Spanish police) declared on 12 July 2004 that damage in the trains could not be caused by dynamite, but by some type of military explosive, like C3 or C4. Use of Titadine (Used by ETA, and intercepted in its way to Madrid 11 days before) has also been reported.

A radio report mentioned a plastic explosive called "Special C". However, the government said that the explosive found in an unexploded device, discovered among bags thought to be victims' lost luggage, was the Spanish made Goma-2 ECO. The unexploded device contained 22lb of explosive with 2lb of nails and screws packed around it as shrapnel.. Goma-2 ECO was never before used by al-Qaida, but the explosive and the modus operandi was a ETA trademark.

Two bombs—one in Atocha and another one in El Pozo stations, numbers 11 and 12—were detonated accidentally by the TEDAX. According to the provincial chief of the TEDAX, deactivated rucksacks contained some other type of explosive. The 13th bomb, which was transferred to a police station, contained dynamite, but did not explode because there were not two wires connecting the explosives to the detonator. That bomb used a mobile phone (Mitsubishi Trium) as a timer, requiring a SIM card to activate the alarm and thereby detonate. The analysis of the SIM card allowed the police to arrest an allegued perpetrator. On Saturday, 13 March, when three Moroccans and two Hindu Indians were arrested for the attacks, it was confirmed that the attacks came from an Islamic group. Only one of the five persons (the Moroccan Jamal Zougam) detained that day was finally prosecuted [8].

On 3 April 2004, in Leganés, south Madrid, four Arab terrorists died in an apparent suicide explosion, killing one G.E.O. (Spanish special police assault unit) police officer and wounding eleven policemen. According to witnesses and media, between five and eight suspects escaped on that day.

Security forces carried out a controlled explosion of a suspicious package found near the Atocha station and subsequently deactivated the two undetonated devices on the Téllez train. A third unexploded device was later brought from the station at El Pozo to a police station in Vallecas, and became a central piece of evidence for the investigation. It appears that the El Pozo bomb failed to detonate because a cell-phone alarm used to trigger the bomb was set 12 hours late.

The People's Party (PP), now in opposition, as well as certain media outlets such as El Mundo newspaper, continue to support alternative theories relating the attack to a vast conspiracy to remove them from power. These theories consider that the Socialist Party (PSOE), together with ETA and members of the security forces and national and foreign (Morocco) secret services, were implicated in the bombings.

Judge Del Olmo assigns the responsibility to "local cells of Islamic extremists inspired through the Internet", not GIA or Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group. These local cells would consist of hash traffickers of Moroccan origin, remotely linked to an al-Qaeda cell already captured. These groups would have bought the explosives (dynamite Goma-2 ECO) from low-level thiefs and police and Guardia Civil confidents in Asturias using money from the small-scale drug trafficking.

According to El Mundo, "the notes on the Moroccan confident 'Cartagena' prove that the Police had the 3/11 leadership under surveillance."

There is also claimed to be circumstancial evidence linking the Islamists with two ETA members detained while driving in the outskirts of Madrid a van containing 500kg of explosives 11 days before the Train bombings

Police surveillance and informants

In the investigations carried out after the bombings to find out what went wrong in the security services, many individual neglicences and miscoordinations between different branches of the police were found. The group dealing with islamist extremist were very small and in spite of having carried out some surveillances, they were unable to stop the bombings. Also some of the criminals involved in the little mafia who provided the explosives were police informants and have leaked to their case officers some hints that were not correctly followed.

Two of those accused of supplying explosives for the bombings have a conviction for a previous 2001 offense of trafficking with Goma-2 ECO, an offence that did not prevent Trashorras, described as "necessary cooperator" from again getting a job in a mine, thus gaining access to explosives and blast equipment again.

According to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, 24 of the 29 alleged perpetrators were informers and/or controlled by the Spanish Police, Civil Guard and C.N.I. ("National Center of Intelligence") before the attacks.

Controversies

Main article: Controversies about the 2004 Madrid train bombings

The authorship of the bombings remains deeply controversial in Spain. Part of the Partido Popular (PP), now in opposition, as well as some media outlets point to alleged inconsistencies and contradictions in the Spanish judicial investigation. Additionally, there is controversy over the events immediately following the bombings and preceding the general elections that took place three days later.

Reactions

Main article: Reactions to the 2004 Madrid train bombings

In the aftermath of the bombings there were massive street demonstrations across Spain as a shocked country tried to come to terms with what had happened. The international reaction was also notable, as the scale of the attack became clearer.

February 2007 Trial

The trial began in February 2007. According to El Pais, "the Court dismantled one by one all conspiracy theories." On the other hand, the defendants withdrew their previous declarations and denied any involvement.

See also

Specifically about the 2004 Madrid bombings

• Aftermath of the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings
• Atocha Train Station Memorial
• Brandon Mayfield, wrongfully identified via fingerprints
• Casualties of the 11 March 2004 Madrid bombings
• Controversies about the 2004 Madrid train bombings
• Forest of the Departed
• José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the 2004 general election
• Reactions to the 2004 Madrid train bombings

Other

• List of terrorist incidents
• Bologna massacre (2 August 1980)
• Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway (20 March 1995)
• 1995 bombings in France (July – October 1995)
• USS Cole bombing - (October 12, 2000)
• 9/11
• 2003 Istanbul Bombings - (November 2003)
• Moscow Metro bombing (6 February 2004)
• 7 July 2005 London bombings - (7 July, 2005)
• 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings
• 2006 Madrid Barajas International Airport bombing

External links

• Commuter rail map

In English

• BBC News In Depth
  • Maps
• CNN In-Depth Specials
• News report from CBC
• U.N. Security Council Resolution 1530
• Madrid: UN's Credibility Critically Wounded
• Spanish Reporters: Government Silenced the Truth About the Attacks
• context - Terrorism's Future, Rahul Mahajan
• A translation of Juan Carlos I's and Prime Minister Aznar's speeches to the nation, March 11 2004
• Remembering March 11: The Madrid Bombings and Their Effect on Spanish Government, Society and the Antiwar Movement - Broadcast by Democracy Now! on November 23, 2004.
• PBS TV Frontline Video - see Chapter 1 of Al Qaeda's New Front
• After the massacre - A video in English with information on the attack.
• Real Instituto Elcano - Framing of the 3/11 attacks and electoral accountability
• JihadMonitor.org Spanish Open Sources Project on Jihadist Terrorism
• The Times Bomb squad link in Spanish blast

Disputing statements made by Spanish government and judiciary

• Spain’s “Terrorgate”?, National Review.
• Madrid's vanished horror, The Guardian - opinion piece written by deputy editor of El Mundo.
• "Fondo Documental" English thread"
• [9].

Rebuttals

• Spain's squabbling right, Dec 7th 2006, The Economist.
• Spain’s 11-M and the right’s revenge, openDemocracy.
• Popular peevishness, The Economist.
• Two years on, parties at odds over blame, Financial Times.

In Spanish

• Spanish Judiciary Indictment.
• Spanish Parliament Report
• Compilation of articles and independent investigations
• El Mundo Special
• Latest news from ABC Spanish newspaper
• Indymedia Madrid
• La Vanguardia: special coverage Dossier and initial News report
• News report from El Semanal
• Timeline by El Mundo.
• Information page from RENFE (Spain's national railway operator)
• Information page from Interior Ministry, mostly a List of wounded
• King Juan Carlos's speech to the nation (official transcript)
• List of official government statements by Cadena SER, and editorial article
• Atentado 11 de marzo de 2004 - Impressions among the Blogs in Spanish.
• Victims' profiles by El País and Cadena Ser
• Listen to Cadena Ser throughout 11-M

Disputing statements made by Spanish government and judiciary

• Los enigmas del 11-M por Luis del Pino (Libertad Digital)
• Especial de Telemadrid emitido el 9 de marzo de 2006
• fondodocumental.com
• Veritas-11M
• Antonio Rubio, Las notas del confidente 'Cartagena' prueban que la Policía controlaba a la cúpula del 11-M, El Mundo, 31.05.05
• Spanish Police Union CEP ("Confederación Española de Policía") media interventions doubting the Indictment. The CEP also supported "Peones Negros" demonstrations [10]
• AVT webpage Asociación de Víctimas del Terrorismo, Spanish Association of Victims of Terrorism.

Rebuttals

• Desiertos Lejanos - Crítica a las teorías conspirativas
• Enrique de Diego, Las falsedades de la tesis de la conspiración del 11-M
• Enrique de Diego, 11M y teorías conspirativas: cui prodest? y preguntas...

Documentary about the bombings

• Todos íbamos en ese tren