Madrid Bombings

On March 11, 2004, a series of 10 bombs detonated aboard four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain. The trains connect Alcalá de Henares (home to Latin American and eastern European immigrant communities) to the southeast part of the city. Four bombs exploded at 7:39 a.m. at Atocha station on train 21431; simultaneously, three bombs exploded just outside Calle Tellez station on train 17305. A few minutes later, two additional bombs exploded on train 21435 at El Pozo del Tìo Raimundo station. At 7:42, one further explosion occurred on train 21713 at Santa Eugenia station. In all, 191 people died (177 at the scene and 13 in the hospital) and more than 1,800 were injured—the highest total in the history of terrorist attacks in Spain. According to the police, the bombs aboard the Atocha and Téllez trains were intended to cause an even higher number of victims by bringing down the roof of Atocha station.

One hour after the attack, Spanish prime minister José María Aznar declared that the Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA, or [Page 373]Basque Fatherland and Liberty) was surely responsible for the bombings. The ETA has a long tradition of staging terrorist attacks as part of its campaign for Basque independence from Spain, and two similar abortive attempts made it reasonable that ETA might be involved.

Rescue workers line up bodies beside a bomb-damaged passenger train at Atocha station following a number of explosions on trains in Madrid on March 11, 2004, just three days before Spain's general elections, killing more than 191 rush-hour commuters and wounding more than 1,800 in Spain's worst terrorist attack.

(AP Photo/Denis Doyle. 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

However, a sports bag containing an unexploded bomb and a cell-phone configured in Arabic were found near the sites of the explosion; the implications of the Arabic cell phone were initially ignored by Spanish authorities. Additional clues caused international public opinion to focus on the al Qaeda hypothesis. Some pointed to the high symbolic nature of the date: the attacks occurred exactly 912 days after the attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11), meaning that there were 911 days in between the two events. Moreover, the ETA, which usually claims responsibility for its actions, strongly denied any responsibility.

Nevertheless, the Spanish foreign minister, Ana Palacio, sent a message to all Spanish embassies declaring again that ETA was without any doubt responsible for the attacks. On Sunday, March 14, the day of Spain's national elections, an editorial published in El País stated, “The prime minister gave his word to the heads of the media so that they would present the attacks as the work of the ETA terrorist group.” The initial ETA hypothesis also gained support from the United Nations. At the request of the Spanish government, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1530 condemning the attacks and accusing ETA of responsibility for the attacks.

Just a few days later, however, the Spanish ambassador had to submit an apologetic letter, explaining the new progress of the investigation, and the likely involvement of al Qaeda. Four days after the attacks, on March 16, The Washington Post reported that “the Spanish government knew early on that there was evidence pointing to Islamic terrorism, but they instructed the police to keep quiet about it and instead pushed the idea that ETA was behind it.” On March 18, the Inter Press Service published an article titled “Spanish Reporters: Government Silenced the Truth About the Attack,” where it was argued that the EFE, a group representing reporters and editors at Spain's state-run news agency, knew very early on about the Arabic cell phone, as well as other evidence that pointed toward al Qaeda.

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