94-496: The 2004 Madrid train bombings (also known in Spain as 11M ) were a series of coordinated, nearly simultaneous bombings against the Cercanías commuter train system of Madrid , Spain, on the morning of 11 March 2004—three days before Spain's general elections . The explosions killed 200 people and injured around 2,500. The bombings constituted the deadliest terrorist attack carried out in
188-462: A C-2 train will be signed El Escorial or Cercedilla rather than Chamartín , and a C-8 train will rather be signed Guadalajara than Atocha. There is no line C-6 because it was combined with line C-5 . In 2004 construction was begun on a second central line to link Atocha and Chamartín , to relieve the heavy traffic in the old tunnel (built during the 1930s and 1940s, when materials were scarce and poor). Opening on July 9, 2008, it included
282-460: A European organisation. This led some experts to point out that the tactics used were more typical of militant Islamic 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, but not always, issues warnings before its mass bombings and that there had been no warning for this attack. Europol director Jürgen Storbeck commented that
376-413: A bomb containing 20 kilograms (44 lb) of ammonal and 100 litres of gasoline together with a timer device and an indeterminate quantity of glue and flakes of soap to create a bomb weighing up to 200 kilograms (440 lb). This was then placed in a stolen Ford Sierra . The attack occurred on a Friday afternoon. The car bomb, hidden in the boot of the vehicle, had been placed on the first floor of
470-470: A branch line located far away from central Madrid in the Sierra de Guadarrama , operates from 9:30 am to 10:30 pm. The frequency of the trains depends on the size of the towns served and the traffic on the line. The central section of the network, from Atocha to Chamartín , through Recoletos and Nuevos Ministerios , has trains every 3–4 minutes (of various lines) on weekday peak hours; the farther branches of
564-615: 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
658-458: A maximum of 5 coaches. They have been designed as a replacement for the old 440/440R series in the CIVIS services. In Madrid there are only 465 series. The 446 and 447 series trains can serve in two composition: a single composition of three cars (called tren corto or short train) and a double composition of six cars (called tren largo or long train) As the double composition is the most usual, when
752-548: A new station at Sol of the Metro where trains stop instead of at Recoletos on the old line. The tunnel is now in use by the C-3 and C-4 . Rather strangely for such a night-living city as Madrid , trains do not operate late at night, mostly for union and safety reasons. The first train to operate on weekdays is the 5:07 C-5 train from Móstoles/El Soto; the rest of the lines (except C-9 ) start to operate around 5:30 am. Line C-9, being
846-456: A result of the handling and representation of the terrorist attacks, rather than because of the bombings per se. Results published in The Review of Economics and Statistics by economist José García Montalvo [ es ] seem to suggest that indeed the bombings had important electoral impact (turning the electoral outcome against the incumbent People's Party and handing government over to
940-429: 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. In December 2006, the newspaper ABC reported that ETA reminded Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero about 11 March 2004 as an example of what could happen unless the government considered their petitions (in reference to the 2004 electoral swing), although
1034-493: A service is operated by a single composition it is announced previously. Cercanias is part of the Madrid Regional Transport Consortium ( Consorcio Regional de Transportes de Madrid ) and follows its zoning system, based in concentric zones around Madrid. The price of the trips inside the network depends on the number of zones crossed. Prices of one single trip ticket , in euro as of April 2015: There
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#17328844897861128-764: A tunnel, the Connection Railway Line ( Línea de Enlaces Ferroviarios , a line to link the MZA lines with the Norte lines; the building started during the Second Republic and was only finished in 1967. The delays gave the tunnel the nickname of Túnel de la risa ("Tunnel of Laughter" ( es )) , after a fairground attraction very popular in the 1930s. The introduction of the RENFE 440 series trains in Madrid on two commuter lines in 1975
1222-452: A vague relationship of ideology." Though the trial proceeded smoothly in its opening months, 14 of the 29 defendants began a hunger strike in May, protesting against the allegedly "unfair" role of political parties and media in the legal proceedings. Judge Javier Gómez Bermúdez refused to suspend the trial despite the strike, and the hunger strikers ended their fast on 21 May. The last hearing of
1316-527: A vehicle, belonging to a terrorist organisation and four counts of carrying out terrorist acts. Spain's El País newspaper reported that three witnesses testified to seeing him leave a rucksack aboard one of the bombed trains, specifically, the one that exploded at Santa Eugenia station. Born in Morocco, Zougam owned a mobile phone shop in the Lavapiés neighborhood in Madrid called Nuevo Siglo ( The New Century ). He
1410-535: Is also the bonotren , that allows ten trips (prices range from € 5.65 to 26.20) and the abono mensual that allows two trips a day during a natural month (prices range from € 20.00 to 70.00) The abono mensual should not be confused with the Abono Transportes , which allows the use of the entire transport network – not just trains. CIVIS is a special service which operates on some lines: first on C-10 and C-3 , and later on C-2 . The CIVIS services uses
1504-421: Is believed to be the person who sold telephones which were used to detonate the bombs in the attack. He also reportedly helped construct the bombs and was one of the first to be arrested. Cercan%C3%ADas Madrid Cercanías Madrid is the commuter rail service that serves Madrid , the capital of Spain , and its metropolitan area. It is operated by Cercanías Renfe , the commuter rail division of Renfe ,
1598-528: Is considered to be the beginning of the modern Cercanías Madrid network. The development of the towns around Madrid as bedroom communities only started in the late 1960s, in two different parts of the metropolitan area: The main Madrid- Zaragoza - Barcelona line followed the valley of the Henares river, going through the important town of Alcalá de Henares to Guadalajara and Zaragoza . The towns around
1692-501: The Atocha station in Madrid. It was later reported that thirteen improvised explosive devices (IEDs) had been placed on the trains. Bomb disposal teams ( TEDAX ) arriving at the scenes of the explosions detonated two of the remaining three IEDs in controlled explosions, but the third was not found until later in the evening, having been stored inadvertently with luggage taken from one of the trains. The following timeline of events comes from
1786-532: The C-7 line was extended to Colmenar Viejo , and in 2004, the C-5 to Humanes . Both extensions were ardently sought, because both cities were already linked by railroad to Madrid, so a Cercanías service was considered logical. The company also developed the so-called CIVIS services, linking important stations non-stop with downtown Madrid ( see below at CIVIS ). The 11 March 2004 attacks occurred in four trains circulating by
1880-515: The C-8 line have trains every two hours on weekends. All lines (except C-9 ) finish their operations around midnight. There are basically three series of trains operating in the Madrid Cercanías network: They are also new modular and moderns trains, called Civia (462, 463, 464 or 465 series). They share the same design, the series number depending on the number of coaches, with a minimum of 2 and
1974-616: The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and current head of the Tripoli Military Council, was suspected of complicity in the bombings. Immediate reactions to the attacks in Madrid were the several press conferences held by the Spanish prime minister José María Aznar involving ETA . The Spanish government maintained this theory for two days. Because the bombs were detonated three days before the general elections in Spain,
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#17328844897862068-498: 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
2162-714: The Vallejo-Nájera Boulevard [ es ] and the Imperial Boulevard) and housing projects. In 1996, the Pasillo Verde was finished. A new line, the C-10, was started linking Collado Villalba to Atocha Station through the Green Corridor. In 2000, the line C-1 was extended to the towns of Alcobendas and San Sebastián de los Reyes , relieving the heavy road traffic between these towns and Madrid. In 2003,
2256-638: The rail station of Puerta del Sol in downtown Madrid, part of this second tunnel, was inaugurated. The old C-1 line was absorbed into the C-4 and until 2011 there was no C-1 line, when it was revived as the railway to the Madrid-Barajas Airport was inaugurated. Since 2011 no new lines have been enacted, and the link to the Parque Warner Madrid theme park was closed because of lack of use. The improvements have consisted of insertion of new stations in
2350-461: The 21 killed and 40 wounded from a 1987 bombing at a Hipercor chain supermarket in Barcelona. On that occasion, responsibility was claimed by ETA . It was Europe's worst terror attack since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie , Scotland on 21 December 1988. A device composed of 12 kilograms of Goma-2 ECO with a detonator and 136 meters of wire (connected to nothing) was found on
2444-670: The Atlantic North of Spain from the Estación del Norte (now Príncipe Pío ), the Madrid, Zaragoza and Alicante railway (MZA) who operated the lines between the capital and the Mediterranean and Andalusian cities from the Atocha station. Another station, Delicias , served the line to Lisbon . Other smaller companies operated from Madrid, mostly in narrow gauge . After the Civil War , in 1941,
2538-657: The Audiencia Nacional, were released after a Higher Court ruling. This court also verified the release of the Egyptian Rabei Osman al-Sayed. On 14 March 2004, Abu Dujana al-Afghani , a purported spokesman for al-Qaeda in Europe, appeared in a videotape claiming responsibility for the attacks. The Spanish judiciary stated that a loose group of Moroccan, Syrian, and Algerian Muslims and two Guardia Civil and Spanish police informants were suspected of having carried out
2632-623: The Aznar government. On the other hand, an Islamic extremist attack would have been perceived as the direct result of Spain's involvement in Iraq, an unpopular war that had not been approved by the Spanish Parliament. 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
2726-520: The ETA leader Santiago Arrospide Sarasola, "Santi Potros", three members of ETA's 'Barcelona Commando' Josefa Ernaga, Domingo Troitiño and Rafael Caride Simón, decided to place an incendiary bomb inside a Hipercor store. The three visited various commercial centres and selected one where a car could be parked. They then met in a flat in Carrer Castelldefels, Barcelona, Catalonia , Spain, and assembled
2820-489: The Madrid bombings, was signed by Germany, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria, and Belgium. On 4 January 2007, El País reported that Algerian Ouhnane Daoud, 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, though this has not been confirmed. On 17 March 2008, Basel Ghalyoun, Mohamed Almallah Dabas, Abdelillah El-Fadual El-Akil and Raúl González Peña, having been found guilty by
2914-698: The Madrid-Alcalá-Guadalajara-Zaragoza line. One of the trains was a double-decker 450 series which served the C-2 line coming from Guadalajara to Chamartín ; the other three were 446 series who departed from Alcalá de Henares : two serving the C-1 line to Alcobendas and one serving the C-7 line, finishing in Príncipe Pío . After the attacks, services were reintroduced the following day, with RENFE private security reinforced. Security measures and design of
2004 Madrid train bombings - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-563: The Socialist Party, PSOE). After 21 months of investigation, judge Juan del Olmo tried Moroccan national Jamal Zougam , among several others, for his participation carrying out the attack. Although claims were made that attacks were linked to al-Qaeda , investigations and probes conducted by Spanish officials did not find any links to al-Qaeda. Findings issued by the Spanish judiciary in September 2007 found 21 individuals of participating in
3102-511: The Spanish judiciary reached "scientifically unsound" conclusions about the kind of explosives used in the trains, and that no direct al-Qaeda link was found, thus "debunking the key argument of the official version". Anthropologist Scott Atran described the Madrid trial as "a complete farce" stating that "There isn't the slightest bit of evidence of any operational relationship with al-Qaida". Instead, "The overwhelming majority of [terrorist cells] in Europe have nothing to do with al-Qaida other than
3196-544: The aftermath of the attacks, however, the chief coroner alleged that no shrapnel was found in any of the victims. Goma-2 ECO was never before used by al-Qaeda, but the explosive and the modus operandi were described by The Independent as ETA trademarks, although the Daily Telegraph came to the opposite conclusion. Two bombs, one in Atocha and another in El Pozo stations, numbers 11 and 12, were detonated accidentally by
3290-421: The ailing railway companies were nationalised and joined in the new RENFE , and the narrow gauge lines were progressively closed, the last one in 1970. Almost at the same time, the new Chamartín station was built and all services were transferred to the main stations: Chamartín for the north and east-bound and the international services and Atocha for the south and west-bound trains. Both stations were linked by
3384-573: The alarm and thereby detonate. The analysis of the SIM card allowed the police to arrest an alleged perpetrator. On 13 March, when three Moroccans and two Pakistani Muslims were arrested for the attacks, it was confirmed that the attacks came from an Islamist group. Only one of the five persons (the Moroccan Jamal Zougam) detained that day was finally prosecuted. The Guardia Civil developed an extensive action plan to monitor records corresponding with
3478-528: The attack. While an ETA spokesman apologised for the attack, this apology was criticised, with the Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia asking: "Does anyone who does not want to kill many people plant a bomb in a supermarket, at a peak hour on a Friday?" Following the arrest in 1993 of the bomber Simón, The Independent noted that "The attack was seen by many as a turning-point in the organisation's fortunes, its cold-blooded murder of women and children sickening many Basques who until then had sympathised with
3572-429: The attacks, while rejecting the involvement of an external mastermind or direct al-Qaeda links. During the peak of Madrid rush hour on the morning of Thursday, 11 March 2004, ten explosions occurred aboard four commuter trains ( cercanías ). The date, 11 March, led to the abbreviation of the incident as "11-M". All the affected trains were traveling on the same line and in the same direction between Alcalá de Henares and
3666-517: The attacks. On 11 April 2006, Judge Juan del Olmo charged 29 suspects for their involvement in the train bombings. No evidence has been found of al-Qaeda involvement, 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". In August 2007, al-Qaeda claimed to be "proud" about the Madrid 2004 bombings. The Independent reported that "Those who invented
3760-425: The bomb but the police had failed to evacuate the area. The police said that the warning had come only a few minutes before the bomb exploded. The Spanish news agency said a man claiming to speak for ETA had told the Barcelona newspaper Avui 30 minutes before the blast at 16:15 that a bomb would go off in the store. A spokesman at the store said police officers and private security guards began searching
3854-611: The bomb was set 12 hours late. Sectors of the People's Party (PP), and certain media, such as El Mundo newspaper and the COPE radio station, continue to support theories relating the attack to a vast conspiracy to remove the governing party from power. Support for the conspiracy was also given by the Asociación de Víctimas del Terrorismo (AVT), Spain's largest association of victims of terrorism. These theories speculate that ETA and members of
2004 Madrid train bombings - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-445: 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". Political analysts believe ETA's guilt would have strengthened the PP's chances of being re-elected, as this would have been regarded as the death throes of a terrorist organisation reduced to desperate measures by the strong anti-terrorist policy of
4042-405: The bombings by ETA was either misleading or groundless. During the trial the defendants retracted their previous statements and denied any involvement. According to El Mundo the questions of "by whom, why, when and where the Madrid train attacks were planned" are still "unanswered", because the alleged masterminds of the attacks were acquitted. El Mundo also claimed — among other misgivings — that
4136-490: The bombings happened 911 days (exactly 2 and a half years) after the 11 September attacks due to the "highly symbolic and qabbalistic charge for local Al-Qaida groups" of choosing that day. Actually, because 2004 was a leap year, 912 days had elapsed between 11 September 2001 and 11 March 2004. On 27 May 2005, the Prüm Convention , implementing inter alia the principle of availability which began to be discussed after
4230-685: The central government (which operates the Cercanías) about who is responsible for building the line to the new terminal of the Barajas Airport delayed the construction of any rail link. The Madrid Metro Line 8 extension to Terminal 4 opened in May 2007, while the Cercanías link did not open until 2011. [REDACTED] 40°25′08″N 3°41′31″W / 40.4189°N 3.6919°W / 40.4189; -3.6919 1987 Hipercor bombing 1980s 1990s 2000s A car bomb attack
4324-399: The city's major hospitals in search of family members who they thought were aboard the trains. There were 193 confirmed dead victims, the last victim dying in 2014 after having been in a coma for 10 years due to one of the Atocha explosions and not having been able to recover from their injuries. The total number of victims was higher than in any other terrorist attack in Spain, far surpassing
4418-528: The direct railway line between Chamartín and San Fernando without stopping and thus provides faster through service to San Fernando and stations beyond. As Renfe is (at the moment) a constituent of the Spanish Ministry of Infrastructure, and national infrastructure development projects during the last ten years have focused on the development of the Spanish high speed network, funding for new lines has been scarce and growth has been slow (in comparison with
4512-578: 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, firefighters 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. People combed
4606-468: 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,
4700-570: The existing lines and further connections to the Madrid Metro , such as the access from the Sol rail station to the Gran Vía Street , opened in 2021. Nine lines serve the Cercanías network. There are three kinds of lines: It can be argued that lines C-2 and C-8 are the same line, as usually the trains who finish C-8 line in Atocha will follow line C-2 to Guadalajara and vice versa ; indeed,
4794-472: The explosive used in the attacks had been Titadine (used by ETA, and intercepted on its way to Madrid 11 days before). In March 2007, the TEDAX chief claimed that they knew that the unexploded explosive found in the Kangoo van was Goma-2 ECO the very day of the bombings. He also asserted that "it is impossible to know" the components of the explosives that went off in the trains – though he later asserted that it
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#17328844897864888-820: The explosives (dynamite Goma-2 ECO) from low-level thieves, police and Guardia Civil informers in Asturias using money from the small-scale drug trafficking. According to El Mundo , "the notes found on the Moroccan informer 'Cartagena' prove that the Police had the leaders of the cell responsible for the 11 March attacks under surveillance." However, none of the notes refer to the preparation of any terrorist attack. The trial of 29 defendants began on 15 February 2007. According to El País , "the Court dismantled one by one all conspiracy theories" and demonstrated that any link with or involvement in
4982-629: 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
5076-457: The first of the calls coming 57 minutes before the explosion. Some relatives said they would sue the police and the Hipercor store for failing to clear the crowded building after receiving the warnings. A store spokesman said it was up to the police to clear a building. But the government spokesman said the decision was up to management. "The building is private property. It's difficult to go against
5170-514: The former monopoly of rail services in Spain. Its total length is 370 km. The first railroad line departing from Madrid (the second in Spain and the third in the Iberian Peninsula ) was built in 1851 between Madrid and Aranjuez . Soon the growing Spanish railway system was dominated by two large companies: the Compañía del Norte (Northern Company), who operated the lines between Madrid and
5264-511: The government had entered without the approval of the Spanish Parliament . The scale and precise planning of the attacks reared memories of the September 11 attacks . Following the attacks, there were nationwide demonstrations and protests demanding that the government "tell the truth." The prevailing opinion of political analysts is that the Aznar administration lost the general elections as
5358-457: The group's aims." On 9 September 1987, Domingo Troitiño and Josefa Ernaga were detained and on 23 October 1989 both were given sentences of 794 years in prison and fined more than 1,000 million pesetas. The Spanish Central Criminal Court ruled that they had acted in a premeditated manner and had spent a considerable time before the attack weighing up all the possible consequences. Both were ordered to pay 320 million pesetas to
5452-716: The history of Spain and the deadliest in Europe since 1988 . The attacks were carried out by individuals who opposed Spanish involvement in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq . Controversy regarding the handling and representation of the bombings by the government arose, with Spain's two main political parties—the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and the Partido Popular (PP)—accusing each other of concealing or distorting evidence for electoral reasons. The bombings occurred three days before general elections in which incumbent Prime Minister José María Aznar 's PP
5546-455: The judicial investigation. 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, as described below (all times given are in local time CET , UTC +1): 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
5640-547: The line ( Coslada , San Fernando de Henares , Torrejón de Ardoz , Alcalá itself) and some suburbs within the city of Madrid ( Vallecas Villa , Vicálvaro ) started to grow large bedroom communities, which relied heavily in the railway for commuting to Madrid. At the same time, the former rural towns of Alcorcón , Móstoles , Leganés , Fuenlabrada and Getafe (and some others) started to grow as bedroom communities. These bedroom communities were less rail-oriented and relied more in bus services and private transportation, but soon
5734-434: The means we have." There was almost universal condemnation of the attack. Some leaders of Batasuna also felt compelled to condemn the attack, although they pointed out that they did so in a personal capacity and not as party spokesmen. An estimated 750,000 people marched through Barcelona with banners declaring, "Catalonia Rejects Terrorism". Around 700,000 workers paused for five minutes of silence to condemn
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#17328844897865828-489: The most fatalities had occurred in 1986 when a car bomb on República Dominicana Square in Madrid had killed 12 civil guards and injured 50 people. On 10 June 1987, 10 days before the bombing, ETA's political wing Herri Batasuna had received its highest vote share in the European Parliament elections , becoming the most voted for party in the three Basque provinces . Acting on orders received from
5922-585: The new Cercanías brand and new network maps were made, where the lines were numbered: clockwise from the north, from Madrid to: In 1991, the tunnel passing through Madrid linking the C-5 and the C-6 was finished, disbanding the C-6 into a new suburb-to-suburb C-5. At the same time, a shift was appreciated in the Metropolitan Madrid area growth; the new housing initiatives moved from the northeast and southwest part of
6016-458: 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." Mohamed Darif, a professor of political science at Hassan II University in Mohammedia , stated in 2004 that 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
6110-415: The organisation switched strategies and opted for terrorist attacks within Morocco itself." Scholar Rogelio Alonso said in 2007, "the investigation had uncovered a link between the Madrid suspects and the wider world of al-Qaida". Scott Atran said "There isn't the slightest bit of evidence of any relationship with al-Qaida. We've been looking at it closely for years and we've been briefed by everybody under
6204-510: The other hand, the terrorist attacks discouraged 300,000 people from voting. Overall, there was a net 4 percent increase in voter turnout. Judge Juan del Olmo found "local cells of Islamic extremists inspired through the Internet" guilty for the 11 March attacks, rather than the Armed Islamic Group or the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group . These local cells consisted of hashish traffickers of Moroccan origin, remotely linked to an al-Qaeda cell that had been already captured. These groups bought
6298-431: The perpetrators of the Madrid and AVE attacks. The suspected militants, Sarhane Abdelmaji "the Tunisian" and Jamal Ahmidan "the Chinese", were trapped inside the apartment by a police raid on the evening of 3 April. At 9:03 pm, when the police attempted to breach the premises, the militants committed suicide by setting off explosives, killing themselves and one of the police officers. Investigators subsequently found that
6392-408: The polls by 5 percent. It is believed that the Popular Party would have won the election if it had not been for the terrorist attack. The Socialist Party , led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero , ended up winning the election by 5%. The Socialist Party had called for the removal of Spanish troops from Iraq during its campaigning. Rodríguez Zapatero promised to remove Spanish troops by 30 June 2004, and
6486-403: The prime suspect, but the group, which usually claims responsibility for its actions, denied any involvement. 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, the 11 March attacks exceeded any attack previously attempted by
6580-406: The rail services were enlarged: in the Madrid- Toledo line for the towns of Getafe and Parla , in the Madrid- Talavera de la Reina line for Leganés and Fuenlabrada, and in 1976 a wide Iberian gauge line between Madrid and Móstoles was built, substituting the narrow gauge line closed in 1970. At this time, the services were full part of the normal RENFE services, and the cars and stations had
6674-461: The region to the northwest. RENFE then started an ambitious plan of growth of the Cercanías network: upgrading the 19th-century link [ es ] from the decaying Norte station, now renamed Príncipe Pío, to the Atocha station, through the former industrial districts just south the Madrid downtown, burying it underground from Príncipe Pío to Delicias. This project, called the Pasillo Verde (Green Corridor), also created new streets (namely
6768-451: The rocket-paced growth of the Madrid Metro ). As the Cercanías network is the only public transportation system in Madrid which is owned by the Spanish central state (in comparison with the Metro and bus services, owned regionally, municipally and privately) this difference has been exploited politically. A harsh debate between the Madrid regional government (which operates the Metro) and
6862-512: The rolling stock have been accredited to having notably reduced the number of casualties in the attacks. In 2008, the opening of the second north-south rail tunnel through Madrid allowed the C-3, from Aranjuez, and the C-4, from Parla, which used to finish at Atocha, to continue their route further to the north, the C-3 to El Escorial, and the C-4 to Alcobendas-San Sebastián de los Reyes or Colmenar Viejo alternatingly, passing through Madrid. The next year,
6956-441: The scene was so extensive that several of the corpses could not be located until two hours later and some had been burned so severely that identification was impossible. Initially 15 people were killed, of whom ten were women (one of whom was pregnant), three men and two children. However, the death toll then rose to 21, as six victims succumbed to their injuries. In a subsequent communique, ETA said they had given advance warning of
7050-456: The security forces and national and foreign (Moroccan) secret services were involved in the bombings. Defenders of the claims that ETA participated in some form in the 11 March attacks have affirmed that there is circumstantial evidence linking the Islamic extremists with two ETA members who were detained while driving the outskirts of Madrid in a van containing 500 kg of explosives 11 days before
7144-424: The situation had many political interpretations. The United States also initially believed ETA was responsible, then questioning if Islamic extremists were responsible. Spain's third-largest newspaper, ABC , immediately labelled the attacks as "ETA's bloodiest attack." Due to the government theory, statements issued shortly after the Madrid attacks, including from lehendakari Juan José Ibarretxe identified ETA as
7238-499: The source also makes it clear that ETA 'had nothing to do' with the attack itself. In France, the Vigipirate plan was upgraded to orange level. In Italy, the government declared a state of high alert. In December 2004, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero claimed that the PP government erased all of the computer files related to the Madrid bombings, leaving only the documents on paper. On 25 March 2005, prosecutor Olga Sánchez asserted that
7332-546: The standard livery of the rest of the company. In the 1980s, services started to operate between Madrid-Chamartín and the new town of Tres Cantos , serving also the Autonomous University of Madrid campus, in Cantoblanco. In 1989, RENFE divided its services in business areas ( áreas de negocio ), each one with its own symbols and livery . The gold and blue colors were substituted by the red, white and gray colors of
7426-486: The store minutes before the blast. However the store management decided not to evacuate the store as it was not the first time that a bomb threat had been received. Ferran Cardenal, the Barcelona Civil Governor, said at a news conference that the police had searched the building before the bombing but found nothing. Three telephone warnings had been received from a man who claimed to be an ETA spokesman with
7520-415: The stores and to 114 people who had been injured in the attack. Additionally they were ordered to pay 525 million pesetas by way of civil responsibility to the families of those who had been killed and 200,650,000 pesetas to another 45 people who had been injured in the bombing. At the trial Troitiño and Ernaga attempted to justify their actions, stating that they had only intended to incinerate
7614-460: The stores, not cause deaths, although they were aware there were inhabited buildings at the back of Hipercor. In 1993, Rafael Caride Simón was arrested in France. Spanish police alleged that Caride Simón had been the former head of ETA's so-called "Barcelona Commando" and had planned the Hipercor attack. On 23 July 2003 he was sentenced to 790 years in prison for carrying out the attack, while at
7708-543: The sun... and nothing connects them." He provides a detailed timeline that lends credence to this view. According to the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, the Islamic extremists' alliance with ETA is highly dubious and "there is not anyway any terror case whatsoever to this day in which islamist internationalists collaborated with non-muslims". Former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar said in 2011 that Abdelhakim Belhadj , leader of
7802-449: The three-storey subterranean car park below the commercial centre. At approximately 16:12, a timer activated the bomb which exploded, destroying 20 vehicles parked nearby and causing a hole of around 5 metres in diameter in the ground floor of the shopping centre through which a huge ball of flame penetrated. Several of those unaffected by the flames were asphyxiated by the toxic gases produced, causing several fatalities. The damage at
7896-466: The track of a high-speed railway line ( AVE ) on 2 April. The Spanish judiciary chose not to investigate that incident and the perpetrators remain unknown. The device used in the AVE incident was unable to explode because it lacked an initiation system . Shortly after the AVE incident, police identified an apartment in Leganés , south of Madrid, as the base of operations for the individuals suspected of being
7990-470: The train bombings. The Madrid judge Coro Cillán continued to hear conspiracy theory cases, including one accusing government officials of ordering the scrapping of the bombed train cars in order to destroy evidence. The public seemed convinced that the Madrid Bombings were a result of the Aznar government's alignment with the U.S. and its invasion of Iraq. Before the attack, the incumbent Popular Party led
8084-539: The trial was held on 2 July 2007. On 31 October 2007, the Audiencia Nacional of Spain handed down its judgements. Of the 28 defendants in the trial, 21 were found guilty on a range of charges from forgery to murder. Two of the defendants were sentenced each to more than 40,000 years in prison. Jamal Zougam (born 5 October 1973) is one the men convicted in the bombings. He was detained on 13 March 2004, accused of multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, stealing
8178-515: The troops were withdrawn a month earlier than expected. Twenty-eight percent of voters said that the bombings influenced their opinions and vote. An estimated 1 million voters switched their vote to the Socialist Party after the Madrid bombings. These voters who switched their votes were no longer willing to support the Popular Party's stance on war policy. The bombings also influenced 1,700,000 citizens to vote who did not plan on originally voting. On
8272-495: The two years before the attack, ETA detonated six car bombs in Barcelona that killed three people. Up to this point, Spain's deadliest terrorist attack had been the El Descanso bombing in Madrid in 1985 by suspected Islamic militants which had killed 18 Spaniards and injured 82 others, including 11 American servicemen , who were believed to have been the target of the attack. The ETA attack which had caused
8366-630: The use of weapons and explosives. There were 166,000 inspections conducted throughout the country between March 2004 and November 2004. About 2,500 violations were discovered and over 3 tons of explosives, 11 kilometers of detonating cord, and over 15,000 detonators were seized. On 3 April 2004, in Leganés , south Madrid, four terrorists died in an apparent suicide explosion, killing one Grupo Especial de Operaciones (GEO) (Spanish special police assault unit) police officer and wounding eleven policemen. According to witnesses and media, between five and eight suspects escaped that day. Security forces carried out
8460-477: The will of the owners. The police's action was appropriate at all times." Prime Minister Felipe González cut short a visit to Brazil to return to Spain. He told reporters in Salvador, Brazil : "This attack is of a different style than what we have seen to date. It is an attempt to force the government to change tack. But we will not give in to indiscriminate violence. We shall continue fighting terrorism with all
8554-641: Was carried out on 19 June 1987 at the Hipercor shopping centre in Barcelona , Spain, by the Basque separatist organisation ETA , which was classified as a terrorist group by the European Union and numerous nations. The bombing killed 21 people and injured 45, the deadliest attack in ETA's history. Controversy surrounded the timing of telephone warnings made before the attack and the authorities' response to them. During
8648-460: Was defeated. Immediately after the bombing, leaders of the PP claimed evidence indicating the Basque separatist organization ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) was responsible for the bombings, while the opposition claimed that the PP was trying to prevent the public from knowing it had been an Islamist attack, which would be interpreted as the direct result of Spain's involvement in Iraq, an unpopular war which
8742-487: Was dynamite. The Judge Javier Gómez Bermúdez replied "I cannot understand" to these assertions. 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 10 kg (22 lb) of explosive with 1 kg (2.2 lb) of nails and screws packed around it as shrapnel . In
8836-427: 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 . An unnamed source from the Aznar administration claimed that
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