2004 Madrid train bombings
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 193 people and injured around 2,050.[1][2] The bombings constituted the deadliest terrorist attack carried out in the history of Spain and the deadliest in Europe since 1988.[3] The attacks were carried out by individuals who opposed Spanish involvement in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
2004 Madrid train bombings
Madrid, Spain
Backpacks filled with Goma-2 explosives
193
2,050[1]
Jamal Zougam and five other individuals
Opposition to Spanish participation in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
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 was defeated.[11][4] Immediately after the bombing, leaders of the PP claimed evidence indicating the Basque separatist organization ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) was responsible for the bombings,[4][12][13] 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 the government had entered without the approval of the Spanish Parliament.[14] The scale and precise planning of the attacks reared memories of the September 11 attacks.[4]
Following the attacks, there were nationwide demonstrations and protests demanding that the government "tell the truth."[15] The prevailing opinion of political analysts is that the Aznar administration lost the general elections as a result of the handling and representation of the terrorist attacks, rather than because of the bombings per se.[16][17][18][19] Results published in The Review of Economics and Statistics by economist José García Montalvo[20] seem to suggest that indeed the bombings had important electoral impact[21] (turning the electoral outcome against the incumbent People's Party and handing government over to 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.[22] Although claims were made that attacks were linked to al-Qaeda,[23] investigations and probes conducted by Spanish officials did not find any links to al-Qaeda.[5][7][8] Findings issued by the Spanish judiciary in September 2007 found 21 individuals of participating in the attacks, while rejecting the involvement of an external mastermind or direct al-Qaeda links.[24][25][26][27][28]
During the peak of Madrid rush hour on the morning of Thursday, 11 March 2004, ten explosions occurred aboard four commuter trains (cercanías).[29] 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 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 the judicial investigation.[30]
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 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 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.[2]
The total number of victims was higher than in any other terrorist attack in Spain, far surpassing 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.[3]
Police surveillance and informants[edit]
In the investigations carried out to find out what went wrong in the security services, many individual instances of negligence and miscoordination between different branches of the police were found. The group dealing with Islamist extremists was very small and in spite of having carried out some surveillances, they were unable to stop the bombings. Also, some of the criminals involved in the "Little Mafia" who provided the explosives were police informants and had leaked to their case officers some tips that were not followed up on.
Some of the alleged perpetrators of the bombing were reportedly under surveillance by the Spanish police since 2001.[101][102][103]
At the time of the Madrid bombings, Spain was well equipped with internal security structures that were, for the most part, effective in the fight against terrorism. It became evident that there were coordination issues between police forces as well as within each of them. The Interior Ministry focused on correcting these weaknesses. It was Spain's goal to strengthen its police intelligence in order to deal with the risks and threats of international terrorism. This decision for the National Police and the Guardia Civil to strengthen their counter-terrorism services, led to an increase in jobs aimed at preventing and fighting global terrorism. Counter-terrorism services increased its employment by nearly 35% during the legislature. Human resources in external information services, dealing with international terrorism, grew by 72% in the National Police force and 22% in the Guardia Civil.[104]
Memorial service for victims[edit]
A memorial service for the victims of this incident was held on 25 March 2004 at the Almudena Cathedral. It was attended by King Juan Carlos I, Queen Sofía, the victims' families, and representatives from numerous other countries, including British prime minister Tony Blair, French president Jacques Chirac, German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.[111]