Eta's latest atrocity - last gasp or second wind?

Written off in recent months as possibly moribund after a string of arrests and thwarted attacks, the Basque separatist group Eta demonstrated today it’s still capable of spectacular violence.

Bombs hidden on morning rush-hour trains full of commuters and schoolchildren headed to downtown Madrid killed at least 186 and injured more than 1,000.

It’s the worst terrorist attack in Spanish history, the worst in the EU since Lockerbie and one of the worst in the world since the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

Until today the most deadly Eta attack came in 1987 with a blast at an underground car park at a Barcelona supermarket. It killed 21 people.

Eta did not claim responsibility today or give advance warning, which it often has in the past. But the government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar blamed it squarely, citing similarity with recent bomb attempts that were discovered and deactivated.

“It is absolutely clear and evident that the terrorist organisation Eta was looking to commit a major attack,” Interior Minister Angel Acebes said. “The only thing that varies is the train station that was targeted,” he said, referring to a failed Christmas attack at another Madrid rail station.

A ministry official said the explosives used today were the same kind of dynamite Eta has used in the past.

Explosives packed in travel bags were found on a train headed to Madrid on Christmas Eve, and in possession of an alleged Eta member who intended to put a second satchel aboard. The final station, Chamartin, not hit Thursday, would have been crowded with travellers.

Just two Sundays ago, police before dawn detained a van 81 miles from Madrid and found half a ton of potassium chloride compound, compressed dynamite, a core fuse and an electrical

detonator – enough to demolish a tall building. Two alleged Eta members were arrested.

Today’s attacks overwhelmed hospitals, disrupted mass transit and mobile phone networks and provoked a crisis Cabinet meeting and the cancellation of political campaigning ahead of Sunday’s general election.

TV and radio stations cancelled other programming and broadcast live reports - and grisly images – continuously from train stations, hospitals and centres of assistance.

In a nationally televised address, Aznar urged Spaniards to attend anti-terrorism rallies in cities across the country on Friday evening. Turnout was expected to be massive.

There was no talk of postponing the election which Aznar’s party now appears certain to win.

“These are hours of horror and rage, but also of … firmness and determination,” the Popular Party’s candidate for prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, said.

“They’re challenging all Spaniards and we Spaniards aren’t going to give in,” he continued. “They’re not going to break us. They’re not going to achieve anything. They’re not going to go unpunished.”

Eta has been beset for more than a year by arrests in France and Spain as well as the seizure of weapons, an international crackdown on its funding, and social rejection of its violence.

The group – thought by police to number perhaps as few as several dozen hard-core militants, but supported by a wider group of Basque nationalists – has fought since the late 1960s to achieve independence for the Basque-speaking regions of northern Spain and south-west France.

Eta is the Basque-language acronym for Basque Homeland and Freedom.

The latest violence was uniformly denounced.

“What a horror,” said Basque regional president Juan Jose Ibarretxe. “When Eta attacks, the Basque heart breaks into a thousand pieces.”

He also stressed: “Please, don’t let’s talk about Basque terrorism. Terrorism is by Eta. They aren’t Basques. They’re simply animals. They’re simply assassins.”

Prime Minister Aznar said that despite the deadly bombings, Eta remains at a low ebb because of the international crackdown led by his government.

France, where Eta launches few attacks, has notched recent arrests, and last year the European Union and the United States declared Eta a terrorist organisation.

“The terrorists have an operating capacity weaker than ever,” Aznar said, but also a “tragically active” willingness to keep fighting.

Therefore, “No one should aspire to anything other than the concrete defeat of terrorism. A complete and total defeat. Surrender without conditions of any kind….

“No negotiation is possible or desirable with these assassins who so many times have sown death all around Spain,” said Aznar, who in 1995 survived an Eta car bombing when he was opposition leader. “Only with firmness can we end the attacks.”