Information about 11 March 2004 Madrid Attacks

March 2004 Madrid Train Bombings
Atocha Station
Location	Madrid, Spain
Target(s)	Madrid Commuter Train System
Date	11 March 2004 07:30 – 08:00 (UTC+1)
Attack type	Backpack bombs
Deaths	191
Injured	2050 [1]

The 2004 Madrid train bombings (also known in Spanish as 11-M^[1]) consisted of a series of coordinated bombings against the Cercanías (commuter train) system of Madrid, Spain on the morning of 11 March 2004 (three days before Spain's general elections and 911 days after 9/11), killing 191 people and wounding 2,050.^[2] The official investigation by the Spanish Judiciary determined the attacks were directed by an al-Qaeda inspired terrorist cell^[3],^[4][5] although no direct al-Qaeda participation has been established^[6].^[7][8] Spanish nationals who sold the explosives to the terrorists were also arrested.^[9] According to the European Strategic Intelligence And Security Centre, this is the only Islamist terrorist act in the history of Europe where international Islamists collaborated with non-Muslims.^[10]

The authorship of the bombings remains controversial to some groups in Spain due to the high political price paid by the Partido Popular (PP), who were then in power. The aftermath of the terrorist attacks were marked by bitter arguments between the two main political parties (PSOE and PP), who accused each other of concealing or distorting evidence for electoral reasons. If it was proven that the 11 March attacks had been carried out by ETA, political analysts^[11][12] believe it would have strengthened the PP's chances of being re-elected, as this would have been perceived as the death throes of a terrorist organisation reduced to desperate measures by the strong anti-terrorist policy of the Aznar administration. On the other hand, an Islamist attack would have been perceived as the direct result of Spain's involvement in Iraq, a massively unpopular war^[13] that had not been approved by the Spanish Parliament.

A controversy appeared regarding the handling and representation of the bombings by the government of José María Aznar and alleged unresolved issues around the bombings.

After 21 months of investigation, judge Del Olmo ruled Moroccan national Jama Zougam guilty of physically carrying out the attack [2], ruling out any ETA intervention. Nation-wide demonstrations and protests followed the attacks.^[14] Many analysts coincide on the view that the Aznar administration lost the general elections as a result of the handling and representation of the terrorist attacks, rather than the bombings per se.^[15]

Description of the bombings

During the peak of Madrid rush hour on the morning of Thursday, 11 March 2004, ten explosions^[16] 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 the 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 but the third was not found until later in the evening, having been stored inadvertently with luggage taken from the train. The following time-line of events comes from the judicial investigation.^[17]

All four trains had departed the Alcalá de Henares station 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 the Daoiz y Velarde sports facility. Bystanders and local residents helped relief workers, as hospitals were told to expect the arrival of many casualties. 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-two of the dead came from thirteen countries outside of Spain, including fifteen from Romania, five from Ecuador, another five from Peru, four from Poland, three from Colombia, two from Honduras, and one from Bulgaria, Chile, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, France, and Morocco.^[18] The total number of victims was higher than in any other terrorist attack 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.

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.^[19] 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.^[20] 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.^[21]

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.^[22]

Five to eight suspects believed to be involved in the 11 March attacks managed to escape.^[22] 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 (in reference to the 2004 electoral swing), although the source also makes it clear that ETA 'had nothing to do' with the attack itself.^[23]

Aftermath

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

In France, the Vigipirate plan was upgraded to orange level.^[24] In Italy, the Government declared a state of high alert.^[25]

In December 2004 José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero claimed that the PP government wiped off all of the computer files related with the Madrid bombings, leaving only the documents on paper.^[26]

On 25 March 2005, prosecutor Olga Sánchez asserted that the bombings happened 911 days after 9/11 due to the "highly symbolic and qabbalistic charge for local al-Qaida groups"^[27] of choosing that day. But there are 912 days from 9/11 to 11/3.

On 4 January 2007 El País reported that Algerian Daoud Ouhnane, who is considered to be the mastermind of the 11-M bombings, has been searching for ways to return to Spain to prepare further attacks.^[28] Though, this has not been confirmed.

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^[29][30][31] 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.^[32]

No evidence has been found of al-Qaeda involvement,^[33] although an al-Qaeda claim was made the day of the attacks by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades. Though, U.S. officials note that this group is "notoriously unreliable".^[34] On August 2007, al-Qaida claimed to be "proud" about the Madrid 2004 bombings.^[35]

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."^[36]

According to the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT), the attack was carried out by individuals associated with the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group.^[37]

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."^[38]

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 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.^[39] Later evidence strongly pointed to the involvement of extremist Islamist groups, with the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group named as a focus of investigations.^[40]

Although ETA has a history of mounting bomb attacks in Madrid,^[41] 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".^[42]

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.^[43]

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.^[44] An unnamed source from the Aznar administration claimed that the explosive used in the attacks had been Titadine (used by ETA, and intercepted on its way to Madrid 11 days before).^[45] Despite some confusion, this was soon found to be untrue [3].

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.^[46] Goma-2 ECO was never before used by al-Qaida, but the explosive and the modus operandi were described by The Independent as ETA trademarks, although the Daily Telegraph came to the opposite conclusion.^[47] The trial revealed that the explosive had been stolen from a Spanish mine in Asturias and was later sold to the terrorists.

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, although it did not explode because it was missing 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.^[48] The analysis of the SIM card allowed the police to arrest an alleged perpetrator. On Saturday, 13 March, when three Moroccans and two Hindu Indians^[49][50] were arrested for the attacks, it was confirmed that the attacks came from an Islamic group.^[51] Only one of the five persons (the Moroccan Jamal Zougam) detained that day was finally prosecuted.^[52]

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 that day.^[22]

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.^[53]

Sectors of the People's Party (PP), now in opposition, as well as certain media outlets, such as El Mundo newspaper,^[54] continue to support conspiracy theories relating the attack to a vast conspiracy to remove the governing party from power. These theories speculate that the Socialist Party (PSOE), together with ETA and members of the security forces and national and foreign (Morocco) secret services, were involved in the bombings.^[55]. Defenders of the claims that ETA participated in some form in the 11th of March attacks have affirmed that there is circumstantial evidence linking the Islamists with two ETA members who were detained while driving in the outskirts of Madrid a van containing 500 kg of explosives 11 days before the Train bombings^[56]

Judge Del Olmo found "local cells of Islamic extremists inspired through the Internet" guilty for the 11th of March attacks,^[57] not GIA or Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group. These local cells consist of hash traffickers of Moroccan origin, remotely linked to an al-Qaeda cell that had been already captured. These groups bought the explosives (dynamite Goma-2 ECO) from low-level thiefs, police and Guardia Civil confidents in Asturias using money from the small-scale drug trafficking.^[58]

According to El Mundo, "the notes on the Moroccan confident 'Cartagena' prove that the Police had the leaders of the cell responsible for the 11th of March attacks under surveillance."^[59]

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.

Some of the alleged perpetrators of the bombing were reportedly under surveillance by the Spanish police since 2001^{[60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75]}

Controversies

Main article: Controversies about the 2004 Madrid train bombings

The authorship of the bombings remains a controversial issue in Spain. Sectors of the Partido Popular (PP) and some of the PP-friendly media outlets (primarily El Mundo and the catholic church owned Cadena COPE radio station), claim that there are inconsistencies and contradictions in the Spanish judicial investigation.

As Spanish and international investigations continue to claim the unlikeliness of ETA's active implication, these claims have shifted from direct accusations involving the Basque terrorist organisation [4] to less specific insinuations and general scepticism [5].

Additionally, there is controversy over the events that took place between the bombings and the 14th of March general elections.^[76][77]

Reactions

Main article: Reactions to the 2004 Madrid train bombings

In the aftermath of the bombings there were massive street demonstrations across Spain to protest the train bombings.^[78] The international reaction was also notable, as the scale of the attack became clearer.

The Madrid trial

The trial of 29 accused began on 15 February 2007. According to El Pais, "the Court dismantled one by one all conspiracy theories." and demonstrated that any link or implication of the bombings with ETA was either misleading or without any foundation. During the trial the defendants withdrew their previous declarations and denied any involvement.^[79][80][81]

Though the trial proceeded smoothly in its opening months, 14 of the 29 accused mounted a hunger strike in the month of May, protesting against the alleged "unfair" role of political parties and media in the legal proceedings. Judge Javier Bermudez Gomez refused to suspend the trial despite the strike, and the hunger strikers ended their fast on 21 May.^[82]

The last audience of the trial was held on 2 July 2007. Transcripts and videos of the audiences are visible on datadiar.tv.^[83]

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
• 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings
• 2006 Madrid Barajas International Airport bombing

Notes

External links

• Commuter rail map

In English

• BBC News In Depth
• Maps
• CNN In-Depth Specials
• News report from CBC
• Weekly coverage of the trial on Madrid11.net
• 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"
• http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/007961.php.

Rebuttals

• Spain's squabbling right, December 7], 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 http://www.libertaddigital.es/noticias/noticia_1276296463.html
• 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...

•  • [ e] War on Terrorism

Military conflicts Major terrorist attacks and plots Related articles Participants in operations Targets of operations Operation Enduring Freedom (October 2001 – current) War in Afghanistan (Oct 2001 – current) OEF - Philippines (January 2002 – current) Georgia Train and Equip Program (February 2002 – current) OEF - Horn of Africa (October 2002 – current) OEF - Trans Sahara (February 2007 – current) Algeria (2002 – current) Iraq War (March 19 2003 – current) Insurgency in Saudi Arabia (May 12 2003 – current) Waziristan War (March 2004 – current) South Thailand insurgency (November 7 2004 - current) Lebanon War (July 12 2006 – August 14) War in Somalia (December 20 2006 – current) Lebanon-Fatah al-Islam conflict (May 20 2007 - September 3 2007) 2001: September 11, 2001 attacks 2001 anthrax attacks Shoe bomb plot (December 22) 2002: Terrorism in Pakistan (February 2002 – current) Terrorism in Indonesia 1st Bali bombing (October 12) 2003: Casablanca bombings (May 16) Marriott Hotel bombing (August 5) Istanbul bombings (November 15 and November 20) 2004: Madrid train bombings (March 11) Jakarta Australian embassy bombing (September 9) 2005: 1st London bombings (July 7) 2nd London bombings (July 21) 2nd Bali bombings (October 1) Amman bombings (November 9) 2006: Mumbai train bombings (July 11) Transatlantic aircraft plot (August 9) 2007: Algiers bombings (April 11) Fort Dix plot and JFK Airport plot (May 7 and June 3) London car bomb plot and Glasgow Airport attack (June 29 and June 30 respectively) Timeline Casualties Theaters Criticism Abu Ghraib prison Axis of Evil CIA run Black sites Combatant Status Review Tribunal Extrajudicial prisoners of the US Extraordinary rendition Guantanamo Bay detention camp Guantanamo military commission Military Commissions Act of 2006 NSA call database NSA electronic surveillance program Protect America Act of 2007 Unitary executive theory Unlawful combatant USA PATRIOT Act Afghanistan Northern Alliance Australia Canada Denmark Ethiopia France Germany India Indonesia ISAF Iraq (New Iraqi Army) Italy Israel South Korea NATO Netherlands Pakistan Philippines Poland Romania Saudi Arabia Spain Thailand Turkey United Kingdom United States al-Qaeda Abu Sayyaf Iraqi insurgency Hezbollah Hamas Islamic Courts Union Jemaah Islamiyah Taliban Muslim Brotherhood Pattani Separatists Jaish-e-Mohammed Hizbul Mujahideen Kurdistan Workers Party Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Lashkar-e-Toiba and others