The size and savagery of Thursday’s synchronized train station bombings suggest a significant shift in tactics by Basque separatists–or the work of an entirely new player in Spain.
Spanish authorities are wrestling with competing theories over who was responsible for the attacks. Swift to blame ETA militants fighting to secede from Spain, top officials by the end of the day were forced to acknowledge that they were pursuing a broader investigation.
Forensic evidence, including the type of explosives used, and the arrests in recent weeks of purported Basque terrorists armed with powerful bombs point to ETA as the prime suspects in Thursday’s massacres, investigators said in interviews, echoing Interior Minister Angel Acebes.
ETA purportedly planned a Christmas Eve bombing at another Madrid train station that was foiled by police. Recent intelligence reveals that a young, ruthless generation of Basque militants has been pushing since the summer to pull off a spectacular attack, according to a senior Spanish law-enforcement official.
But the well-coordinated multiple strikes aimed at mass civilian casualties are elements out of character with ETA’s three-decade-old armed campaign. ETA traditionally has targeted the symbols of Madrid’s power, such as police and politicians, or its economic base, with hits on tourist resorts.
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The methods Thursday recalled the brutal choreography refined by Al Qaeda in its Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. And the discovery of Islamic audiotapes along with detonators in a stolen van thought to have been used by the attackers forced investigators to consider a grim alternative scenario: Islamic terrorists might have chosen Spain for the attack, their first successful strike in Western Europe.
“We are pursuing both the possibilities of Basque terrorism and Islamic terrorism,” a Spanish police commander said. “ETA remains the stronger possibility. But these attacks were rather strange. There are elements that resemble Al Qaeda, elements resembling ETA and some things that are neither one nor the other.”
Al Qaeda has been active in Spain for years: A network disrupted in late 2001 was accused of aiding the Sept. 11 hijackers.
However, Spain has been an aggressive partner in what Washington calls its war on terrorism. Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was a prominent supporter of the war on Iraq, a conflict whose first anniversary approaches. In an audiotape last fall, Al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden singled out Spain and Italy as potential targets for punishment. Several weeks later, 19 Italian officers were killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq.
A group calling itself the Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, affiliated with Al Qaeda, e-mailed a claim of responsibility to an Arabic newspaper in London, saying it was “settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader, and America’s ally in its war against Islam.”
In Washington, a U.S. intelligence official said it was too early to rule out the involvement of any specific terrorist group. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said either the ETA or “an outside group” could be responsible.
But the official also acknowledged that Thursday’s attack did not seem to fit any pattern established by the Basque separatist group.
“This would represent an attack on a much larger scale than what they have done previously,” the official said.