2024-03-12 15:14:35
Spain honors the victims of the train attacks on the twentieth anniversary of the bombings
On Monday, Spain and the European Union will honor the memory of 192 people killed in train bombings in Madrid on March 11, 2004. They were the first major attacks carried out by extremists in Europe.
The honoring ceremony, organized by the European Commission, began shortly before 12:30 (11:30 GMT) at the Royal Collections Gallery near the Royal Palace in Madrid, in the presence of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, in addition to the European Union Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson. Europe commemorates March 11 as the “European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism.”
Rescue workers cover bodies next to a bomb-damaged passenger train following a number of explosions in Madrid on March 11, 2004 (EPA)
“We know that we are not alone,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in his opening speech, referring to the 27 European Union countries “united in diversity.”
On that day in 2004, the Spanish capital was plunged into chaos when 10 explosive devices destroyed 4 commuter trains during the morning rush hours.
Although Spain has witnessed decades of violence by the Basque separatist movement ETA, it has never previously been subjected to an attack of this magnitude, which prompted taxi drivers and citizens to rush to provide assistance to emergency services to transport regarding 2,000 wounded people to hospitals.
Although the bombings came two and a half years following the September 11 attacks in the United States, which were carried out by members of Al-Qaeda and claimed the lives of regarding 3,000 people, Europe had no doubts when the attacks occurred in Madrid that the jihadist organization founded by Osama bin Laden may be responsible for it.
Rescue workers place bodies next to a bomb-damaged passenger train at Atocha station following a number of explosions on trains in Madrid on March 11, 2004, just 3 days before the Spanish general elections (AP)
misinformation
The attacks, which Spain refers to as “11M”, which targeted trains at the Atocha station in Madrid and three trains heading to the station, occurred in the context of a charged political atmosphere days before general elections on March 14.
At that time, the ruling right-wing Popular Party, led by outgoing Prime Minister José María Aznar, was the most likely to win over the Socialist Opposition led by José Luis Zapatero.
The Aznar government had decided a year earlier to join the United States in the invasion of Iraq, despite widespread popular opposition to that in Spain. In the following months, bin Laden threatened to carry out retaliatory attacks targeting countries supportive of the Washington-led invasion.
However, within hours of the attacks in Madrid, Aznar’s government pointed the finger at ETA despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
But the hypothesis regarding Etta was quickly ruled out when investigators identified the perpetrators. This was largely thanks to three unexploded bombs found in backpacks and gym bags.
Al-Qaeda also claimed responsibility for the attacks, stressing that they were a response to Spain’s participation in the Iraq War.
Although social media platforms did not exist at the time, doubts quickly spread in Spain regarding the government’s explanation for the attacks, and massive demonstrations took place the next day in which protesters denounced the authorities and accused them of lying, at a time when the phrase “misinformation” was barely known.
Three are still in prison
On March 14, Spaniards voted by a large margin for the Socialist opposition, and analysts said the government’s disastrous handling of the attacks played a large role.
Seven alleged members of the jihadi cell, suspected of involvement in the attacks, blew themselves up when police surrounded an apartment in which they were hiding in the southwestern suburbs of Madrid. The bombing also killed a policeman who was counted in Spain as the 193rd victim of the attacks. After investigations that lasted 3 years, 29 suspects, the vast majority of them from Morocco, were tried in early 2007 in procedures that lasted 6 months. At the end of the trials, 18 of them were convicted.
After 20 years, 3 convicts are still in prison: two Moroccans, each of whom was sentenced to regarding 43,000 years in prison, and a Spaniard who supplied the perpetrators with explosives, who was sentenced to 35,000 years in prison.
They will remain in prison, in principle, until 2044.
All other convicts were released following serving their sentences, and the vast majority were deported or handed over mainly to the Moroccan authorities.
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