Madrid Bomb Blast

[Ramrod]

Al-Quaeda claims responsibility

Purported Qaeda letter claims Spain bombings-paper
Thu 11 March, 2004 20:33

DUBAI (Reuters) - A letter purporting to come from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network has claimed responsibility for the train bombings in Spain, calling them strikes against "crusaders", according to a London-based Arabic newspaper.

"We have succeeded in infiltrating the heart of crusader Europe and struck one of the bases of the crusader alliance," said the letter which called the attacks "Operation Death Trains". There was no way of authenticating the letter, a copy of which was faxed to Reuters' office in Dubai by the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper.

The letter bore the signature "Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades". The newspaper received similar letters from the same brigade claiming responsibility on behalf of al Qaeda for a November bombing of two synagogues in Turkey and the August bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

....possibly

More...

[Ramrod]

Arrests

FIVE people were arrested last night by Spanish police hunting the train bombers who killed 200 people in Madrid as the government announced it had received a videotape purportedly from Al-Qaeda claiming responsibility for the attack.
The five †� three Moroccan Muslims and two Indians †� were detained in connection with a mobile phone that was found in a sports bag containing an unexploded bomb on one of four rush-hour trains attacked on Thursday morning. A phonecard was also discovered in the bag.

[paulyoung666]

had a feeling it would be them
i just hope it doesnt spread over here , i noticed this this morning , wonder if it will make any difference

[Julian]

And 911 days after Sept. 11th too.

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by Julian

And 911 days after Sept. 11th too.

coincidence , methinks not somehow

[BBKing]

912 actually. And 911 is a number of significance only in the American notation of the western calendar (here it would be 119), which isn't the same as the Arabic calendar anyway (I believe 11th September 2001 was of signifcance in Islam though).

People can get too fixated on interesting coincidences, which turn up everywhere. It's a form of superstition.

Mind you it was 2 1/2 years to the day too (11/9/2001 to 11/3/2004).

Edit: I think the timing was more to do with disrupting the democratic process in Spain and prevent the re-election of an Iraq-war-supporting government. Hence the time from now till the next election here in the UK is going to be dangerous, so keep your eyes open and your wits about your. Seriously (and I'm not often serious).

[Russ]

I wonder if the world will refer to the Madrid bombing as '11/3'....I doubt it though.

Originally Posted by Russ D

I wonder if the world will refer to the Madrid bombing as '11/3'....I doubt it though.

Of course if they'd have done it *last* month, it would have been 112 which is a European version of 911 (ie the number for the Emergency Services).

One for the Black Helicopter Brigade...

[Stuartbe]

Originally Posted by Graham

Of course if they'd have done it *last* month, it would have been 112 which is a European version of 911 (ie the number for the Emergency Services).

One for the Black Helicopter Brigade...

I am not convinced it is them.. Dont they usualy use suicide bombers.. This attack was well planned - Does not seem to be alcieda's style...

P.S. 112 is a worldwide emergency number !

Originally Posted by stuartbe

I am not convinced it is them.. Dont they usualy use suicide bombers.. This attack was well planned - Does not seem to be alcieda's style...

Why should Al Qaeda *need* to use Suicide Bombers in a situation like this?

Normally they're used by terrorists in high security situations where just leaving a bag etc around wouldn't work. Because there wasn't such high security in Spain, they could use that technique without too much concern.

[Stuartbe]

Originally Posted by Graham

Why should Al Qaeda *need* to use Suicide Bombers in a situation like this?

Normally they're used by terrorists in high security situations where just leaving a bag etc around wouldn't work. Because there wasn't such high security in Spain, they could use that technique without too much concern.

Very true but for them its all about glory ! They feel it a great honor to die for there cause......

[BBKing]

More to the point, if al-Qaeda (or their associates, really, since they seem to operate on a franchise principle) could pull off something like this (a conventional terrorist bombing in Madrid) presumably Eta could have. If I were Spanish I'd be asking serious questions of my government and its boasts about being tough on terrorists. The current predictions for the election tend to suggest that serious questions aren't being answered.

BBC, 21:23 Sunday
"Spain's opposition Socialist party has claimed an unexpected victory in the country's general election with almost all the votes counted.

The Socialists have won 43% of the vote while the centre-right Popular Party has garnered 38%, reports say"

[Ramrod]

slightly off topic but:



also.....

[Xaccers]

I wonder what the security forces deem to be likely targets (I mean ones which they don't already have inteligence on the likelyhood)

If I was a terrorist and really wanted to strike fear into a nation, I'd target out of the way villages with huge explosives.
How the heck can the forces protect against something like that?

[danielf]

Originally Posted by stuartbe

I am not convinced it is them.. Dont they usualy use suicide bombers.. This attack was well planned - Does not seem to be alcieda's style...

P.S. 112 is a worldwide emergency number !

I might be misreading here, but are you suggesting Al Qaeda do not plan there attacks well? It seems to me that you need to be pretty well organised to pull off something like 9/11.