Second Madrid Bombing

Damn!

According to CBS News the gunmen intentionally blew themselves up when the police surrounded the building. This story is still developing.

These types of bombings fall under the "because we can" motivation.

Then, do we assume the terrorism against Spain is not linked to their partnership with the US, given the recent elections?

IMO, terrorists start with motivation then become addicted to the violence.

I think it is safe to assume it represents a concerted effort in Europe in general.

That is an interesting notion.....

(That was a response to Craven's "addicted" thought, by the way...

But it sounds as though they did it because they were to be captured?

Spanish troops are still in Iraq....

I don't know enough to speculate further. Just sorry for Madrid.

Blood oath!

That is SOME statement. I am impressed. And the more I think about it, the more I agree.

Last Update: Sunday, April 4, 2004. 8:47am (AEST)


A police officer was killed and other people injured in an explosion in a Madrid suburb where police were hunting for suspects in the March 11 bombings. (Reuters)

Suspects, police killed in Madrid explosion

Three men sought for the Madrid train bombings and a police officer have been killed when the suspects set off an explosion when cornered.

"Right now I can tell you that there are three bodies of suspected terrorists who may have killed themselves," Interior Minister Angel Acebes said.

Mr Acebes says a police officer has also been killed and 11 others injured during the operation in the south-western Madrid suburb of Leganes.

He says police units arrived at a Leganes flat in search of suspects of the March 11 bombings that killed 191 people.

When the occupants of the flat spotted the police, "they began firing and shouting and chanting in Arabic".

Mr Acebes says the police were about to raid the flat when the suspects set off a powerful explosion.

He says it is possible one of the suspects may have escaped before the police cordoned off the area.

Witnesses say the facades have been blown out of the first three floors of the block of flats where the suspects had been holed up.

Spain is holding 15 people, many of them Moroccan, over the March 11 commuter train bombings.

Earlier, Mr Acebes said that a bomb found on a high-speed rail track on Friday contains the same explosive and may have a similar detonator to the bombs that blew up four commuter trains last month.

The Government has refused to put the blame on any group for Friday's bomb.

However, the reported similarities between the bombs has led Spanish media to conclude that Spain may have narrowly escaped another mass killing at the hands of Islamic militants.

"We see how the terrorist threat is a serious and real threat and all efforts to combat it every day... are absolutely essential," Mr Acebes said.

High-speed trains from Madrid to the southern city of Seville have begun running again.

I agree with Craven, when I think about it - rather Macbeth-like -
"I am steep'd in blood so far, that would I wade no more,
returning were as tedious as go o'er." and all that...

However, I think these people may have set the explosives off because they were at the point of capture. If one has gone so far in one's beliefs that one has been prepared to kill uninvolved people, I imagine that going out in a blaze of "glory" seems very logical...

bm

Unbeliveably.

Spanish officials say that the dead terrorists of Leganés are the intellectual authors of the March 11 massacre.
At least two of the dead have been identified as a Tunissan and a Moroccan who were on the top 6 most wanted men.

Glad they're dead.
It does seem more of a suicide before arrest than a terrorist bombing, which is good news...I think.