Aznar pledges to find train bombers

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar pledged today to find those responsible for the worst terrorist attack in Spanish history as the nation mourned the 198 who died in the string of train bombings.

“We will bring the guilty to justice,” Aznar said. “No line of investigation is going to be ruled out.”

Aznar and government officials yesterday accused the Basque terror group ETA of mass murder for the stunningly well co-ordinated string of 10 explosions on packed commuter trains.

But today, they also were studying a claim of responsibility by a shadowy group in the name of Osama bin-Laden’s al-Qaida terror network.

Aznar said no suspects have been ruled out and insisted the probe “will soon bear fruit.”

The UN’s counter-terrorism chief, a Spaniard, said ETA was likely behind the Madrid bombings because the attacks bore “all the fingerprints” of the Basque terror group.

“I would say it’s ETA, but I cannot be sure. It has all the fingerprints of ETA,” said Inocencio Arias who chairs the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee.

At noon, Spaniards across the nation observed several minutes of silence. Offices, shops and cafes emptied as people went to stand in the street and remember those killed.

Authorities had requested a minute’s silence but many people in Madrid stood in the cool, wet weather for about 10 minutes.

Afterward, many clapped – a Spanish way to show respect and say goodbye.

The death toll rose overnight from 192 to 198, deputy Justice Minister Rafael Alcala said, adding that 84 bodies remain to be identified.

More than 1,400 people were wounded as panicked commuters trampled on each other, abandoning their bags and shoes.

Train cars were turned into twisted wrecks and platforms were strewn with corpses.

Mobile phones rang unanswered on the bodies of the dead as frantic relatives tried to call them.

Aznar told a news conference that 11 foreigners were among the dead, and that they and their family members would be given Spanish citizenship if they asked for it.

Three days of mourning were declared and campaigning was called off for Spain’s general election, but Foreign Minister Ana Palacio pledged that the vote would be held on Sunday as planned.

“This would be the first way to tell terrorists about our determination to go forward and that they will not succeed in their wicked cause,” Palacio said.

A major campaign issue was how to deal with ETA, the Basque militant group.

Passengers today sobbed, lit candles and left flowers at Madrid’s Atocha station, which was the first one hit in the attacks, and trains had to roll past wreckage left on the track.

“I saw the trains and I burst into tears. I felt so helpless, felt such anger,” said a tearful Isabel Galan, 32.

All the television stations placed a small red and yellow Spanish flag with a black sash in the corner of the screen. Commuter trains also travelled with black cloth on the engine cars.

The government has called nationwide rallies for tonight, with Aznar and other senior officials leading one in Madrid. Millions are expected to attend around the country.

The attack occurred exactly two and a half years after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

It also was Europe’s worst since the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.

“March 11, 2004, now holds its place in the history of infamy,” Aznar said.

US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said today he could not confirm whether al-Qaida had a hand in the bombings.

“There is no specific information” available that would point to the identities of the perpetrators, said. “There is a lot of speculation.”

The 10 backpack bombs exploded in a 15 minute span, starting about 7.39am (6.39am Irish time) on trains along nine miles of commuter line from Santa Eugenia to the Atocha terminal, a bustling hub for underground, commuter and long-distance trains just south of the famed Prado Museum.

Police also found and detonated three other bombs.

“An act of barbaric terrorism has engulfed Spain with profound pain, repulsion and anger,” King Juan Carlos said on national television.

Worst hit was a double-decker train at El Pozo station, where two bombs killed 70 people, fire department inspector Juan Redondo said. One corpse was blown onto the roof.

At the Santa Eugenia station, “there was one carriage totally blown apart. People were scattered all over the platforms. I saw legs and arms. I won’t forget this ever. I’ve seen horror,” said Enrique Sanchez, an ambulance worker.

The e-mail claim of responsibility, signed by the shadowy Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri and received by the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi, said the brigade’s “death squad” had penetrated “one of the pillars of the crusade alliance, Spain.”

“This is part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader, and America’s ally in its war against Islam,” the claim said.

Spain had backed the US led war on Iraq despite domestic opposition, and many al-Qaida-linked terrorists have been captured in Spain or were believed to have operated from here.

Spain’s government is studying the claim but still believes ETA is more likely responsible, a senior official in Aznar’s office said.

The United States believes Al-Masri sometimes falsely claims to be acting on behalf of al-Qaida.

The group took credit for blackouts in the United States and London last year.

If the attack was carried out by ETA, it could signal a radical and lethal change of strategy for the group that has largely targeted police and politicians in its decades-long fight for a separate Basque homeland.

But after police found a stolen van with seven detonators and the Arabic-language tape parked in a suburb near where the stricken trains originated, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said: “I have just given instructions to the security forces not to rule out any line of investigation.”

A top Basque politician, Arnold Otegi, denied Eta was behind the blasts and blamed “Arab resistance,” noting Spain’s support for the Iraq war.

The government said ETA had tried a similar attack on Christmas Eve, placing bombs on two trains bound for a Madrid station that was not hit Thursday.

The Interior Ministry said tests showed the explosives used in the attacks were a kind of dynamite normally used by ETA.

The bombers used titadine, a kind of compressed dynamite also found in a bomb-laden van intercepted last month as it headed for Madrid, a source at Aznar’s office said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Aznar, who survived an ETA car bombing in 1995, will step down when a new government is formed after the elections.

Revulsion over the attack could benefit Aznar’s ruling conservative Popular Party because of its hard-line stance against ETA.

The group – Euskadi ta Askatasuna, or Basque Homeland and Freedom – is believed by police to number perhaps only several dozen hard-core militants who are supported by a wider group of Basque nationalists.

The government had recently expressed cautious optimism that ETA was near defeat after mass arrests, seizures of weapons and explosives, increased cooperation from France and the banning of ETA’s purported political front.

The number of people killed in ETA attacks dropped to three last year.