Terrorist attacks in Madrid (2004). Foreign press about Russia and beyond Attack on the editorial office of Charlie Hebdo magazine

March 11 marks the 10th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in Spanish history. In Madrid, the explosion of bombs planted by terrorists in four commuter electric trains killed 191 people and injured 1,858. Dozens of people were left disabled.

All this is well remembered in Spain, but the round anniversary of the tragedy will, like all previous ones, be celebrated very quietly and modestly. Psychologists and a public organization uniting victims and relatives of the victims oppose any noise. They believe that excessive emotions can negatively affect the mental state of some people traumatized by the terrorist attack. Therefore, mourning events will be limited, as always, to laying flowers at the monuments to the victims of the tragedy at the Atocha train station, at the Pozo and Santa Eugenia suburban platforms, in the memorial park and at the regional administration building. There will be a funeral mass and a classical music concert.

A representative of the regional government of Madrid speaks Jesus Fernandez:

“They say that time can heal everything.” But it cannot heal the wound inflicted on us on March 11, 2004. And this may be for the better. After all, we must never forget that freedom does not fall from the sky. We must defend it every day - defend it decisively and firmly so as not to lose it. Why am I talking about this? Because those who committed terrorist attacks, like all terrorists, are enemies of freedom. So, every anniversary of the tragedy, we not only remember the dead, but also vow to always be faithful to the ideals of freedom, never to give in to blackmail, either political or religious totalitarianism. And it will always be like this.

It is known that terrorist attacks involving immigrants from Arab countries did not cause an attack of xenophobia in the Spaniards. There were no anti-Arab or anti-Muslim protests in the country, although passions were quite heated. Rejection - both from public opinion and from the intelligence services - focused only on the carriers of extremist ideas, and not on all representatives of a particular nationality or religion. Jesus Fernandez describes the feelings of Madrid residents in the first days after the tragedy:

– Sadness, anger, helplessness... Of course, none of us can put ourselves in the place of the victims and their relatives. The deepest pain and feeling of helplessness gripped us, perhaps also because we, free citizens of the West, did not understand the fanaticism of those who commit such atrocities. We are talking about people with brains poisoned by poisonous doctrines. Only they could commit murder of people who did nothing wrong to them. There is no excuse for this.

The Spanish state allocated almost 50 million euros for compensation to those affected by the terrorist attack. The families of the victims received 50 thousand each. Foreign immigrants affected by the terrorist attack and their close relatives, in addition to monetary compensation, were granted Spanish citizenship. Treatment of the wounded, of course, was also provided free of charge.

The Association of Victims of the March 11 Terrorist Attack also exists with government subsidies. She provides assistance to disabled people and families left without a breadwinner, and defends, if necessary, the rights of victims and relatives of the dead. However, this organization has one more concern. Its participants believe that the judicial investigation carried out is not enough, and the Spanish public does not yet know the names of the main authors of the tragedy. Speaks Angeles Pedraza, Chairman of the Association of Terrorist Attack Victims:

There are still many unclear details and unanswered questions

– There are still many unclear details and unanswered questions. Therefore, I again appeal to those in power so that they finally fully understand this most serious terrorist attack that took place in Spain.

According to representatives of the association, as a result of the investigation, which lasted three years, and the trial that took place in 2007, it was not possible to answer the question of who exactly organized the terrorist attack and directed the terrorists’ actions. After all, out of 24 convicts, only one is considered a perpetrator, the rest were only accomplices. It is also believed that the main seven participants, those who planted the bombs in the carriages, committed suicide two weeks after the explosions - to avoid falling into the hands of the police. Meanwhile, it is known that these were illiterate people who participated in the terrorist attack for money. But on March 11, 2004, in the capital of Spain, it was not a hysterical act of amateur terrorists that took place, but a well-planned large-scale sabotage operation. According to experts, it could only be carried out by technically trained and experienced professionals. Who are they? Who made bombs that were detonated at a distance, equipped them with fuses, and calculated the amount of explosives? Representatives of the Spanish public are demanding an answer to this question.

A journalist from the Libertad Digital media group speaks Luis del Pino:

– The saddest thing in the history around March 11 is the absolute silence that has established itself regarding the ins and outs of these events. Meanwhile, more and more mysteries are appearing in this case. There are new details, but the Prosecutor General does not seem to notice them and is in no hurry to resume the investigation in order to fully study the story of the March 11 massacre.

Eight people convicted in connection with the terrorist attacks have already been released. Moreover, two of them were acquitted - they were convicted by mistake. This further undermined the Spaniards' faith that the investigation was able to find the real culprits of the crime. So the demand to reopen the case, according to Luis del Pino, will be heard on the 10th anniversary of the tragedy.

The history of Spain in the 20th century has developed in such a way that over the past decades, terrorist acts have become commonplace in this country: the Basque terrorist organization ETA, which demands independence for the Basques living mainly on Spanish territory, committed acts of violence with enviable regularity. However, on March 11, 2004, an event occurred in Madrid that came as a shock even to the Spaniards, hardened by many years of ETA activity.

Terrorist attack comparable to an airstrike

On March 11, 2004, four commuter trains exploded at Madrid's Atocha train station between 7:30 a.m. and 7:40 a.m. The exact number of explosions still varies in reports from different sources: somewhere ten explosions are mentioned, somewhere they say thirteen. Be that as it may, this disaster became the largest terrorist act in the history of Spain, and its consequences may well be equated to the consequences of an air raid by enemy aircraft during military operations.

About two thousand people received various injuries and injuries, the death toll was 191 people (according to other sources, 192 people). In addition to numerous casualties and injuries, as well as significant material damage, the explosions in Madrid on March 11, 2004 had a direct impact on the political life of the country: in the parliamentary elections that took place three days later, the Socialist Party, an outsider according to all preliminary forecasts and polls, won a sensational victory.

The first suspect was obvious

Whenever a terrorist attack occurs in Spain, the first suspect is always the Basque organization ETA - such is the everyday life of local life. Of course, the actions of the competent Spanish authorities immediately after the events of March 11 were no exception. And initially the suspicions were not without foundation: the Basques usually did not miss the opportunity to remind themselves before parliamentary elections; they had extensive experience in terrorist attacks on Spanish territory, including the use of several synchronized explosions; The police had information that ETA was preparing some actions at train stations before the elections. But at the same time, doubts immediately arose about ETA’s involvement in the March 11 bombings. Firstly, the signature style of the Basque terrorists was advance notice of terrorist attacks, they even named the place and time of the attack (although often incorrect) - this time there was nothing like that.

Secondly, ETA preferred the tactics of individual terror directed against officials, police, and military personnel: a terrorist attack with so many innocent victims was unprofitable for the organization from the point of view of society’s attitude to its political demands. Thirdly, the scale of the attacks did not correspond to the usual terrorist attacks of ETA, which relied on small but numerous actions. In addition, by the beginning of 2004, an alternative version was very relevant: at that moment, the confrontation between the United States and its NATO allies against terrorists led by al-Qaeda was in acute form. Spain actively supported the military presence of the United States and NATO in the Middle East, took part in it itself, and therefore at the end of 2003 it was declared by Bin Laden as one of the likely targets of terrorist attacks. So the Islamist trace in the investigation of the March 11 bombings in Madrid appeared quite quickly.

If you get at least 40 thousand years in prison, you won’t serve more than 40 years

During the investigation, it was discovered that ETA really had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks. During the investigation of the crime scene, an unexploded bomb was found, which was an explosive device activated by a cell phone call. It was the telephone, which was a detonator, that ultimately led the special services to the organizers of the explosions. It turned out that a local terrorist organization with the long name “Fighting Islamic Moroccan Group” was behind the attack. There are many reports in the press that this group was a Spanish cell of al-Qaeda, but it is still unknown for sure whether the “fighting Moroccans” were really local representatives of Bin Laden, or simply established cooperation with al-Qaeda “during the preparation of this particular terrorist attack.

It turned out that the possibility of terrorists committing explosions in Madrid had been considered for a long time, but the substantive development of the operation began in the second half of 2003, when the Spanish government expressed clear support for American policy in the Middle East. The entire structure of the activities of the Spanish special services, which was focused on confronting ETA, contributed to the success of the terrorists and was virtually oblivious to other potential threats. However, after March 11, 2004 (by the way, the date was chosen symbolically, by analogy with the September 11 terrorist attacks), the Spanish competent authorities were partly rehabilitated: they very quickly got on the trail of the terrorists and their accomplices and already in the fall of the same year the first trials took place.

Then these were mainly trials of accomplices: for example, a minor Spaniard was sentenced to six years in prison for delivering dynamite to terrorists, later used for explosions. The main court hearings began at the beginning of 2007, when about thirty people were in the dock. True, approximately half of them were acquitted for one reason or another (in some cases because the accused had already served sentences for terrorist activities in other European countries - and it is impossible to be tried twice for the same crime). Those who were found guilty received enormous prison terms - up to 40 thousand years (total punishment based on the number of victims). However, according to Spanish law, a person cannot be imprisoned for more than forty years for any crime, so those convicted still have a chance to become free.

Alexander Babitsky

MADRID, March 11 – RIA Novosti. Spain on Wednesday honors the memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks at Madrid's Atocha train station on March 11, 2004, which killed more than 190 people and injured about two thousand more.

"The victims will always be in our memory. Constant remembrance and veneration. United against the barbarity of terrorism," Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy wrote on Twitter.

The meeting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house of the country's parliament) began with a minute of silence.

On Wednesday morning, a funeral ceremony was held at the Atocha train station. Those who came to the event brought 192 white balloons in memory of the victims. Speaking at the ceremony, the president of the Association of Victims of Terrorism 11M, Pilar Manhon, accused the authorities of insufficient attention to the victims of the tragedy, calling the authorities’ policy “a policy of oblivion and ignorance.” "We don't deserve to be forgotten by politicians or civil society who were targeted by terrorist attacks," Manhon said.

A mass was held in the Almudena Cathedral (the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Madrid) in memory of the victims of the tragedy, which was attended by the Minister of the Interior Jorge Fernandez Diaz, the President of the Autonomous Community of Madrid Ignacio Gonzalez, the official representative of the Spanish government in the Autonomous Community of Madrid Cristina Cifuentes, the Mayor of Madrid Ana Botella and others government representatives. Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz called the terrorist attacks of March 11, 2004 “the biggest terrorist attack in Europe.” “Today we come to express our condolences to the families of the victims and to condemn terrorism in any part of the world, whatever its circumstances, nothing can justify this barbarity,” said Ignacio Gonzalez, president of the Autonomous Community of Madrid.

In addition, mourning ceremonies will take place in Retiro Park, in the "Forest of the Dead", where 192 trees were planted in 2005 - olive trees and cypresses. At this ceremony, representatives of the Association of Victims of Terrorism will read out a manifesto in memory of the victims of the tragedy. White balloons will be released into the sky.

Funeral ceremonies are also held in other cities of Spain.

The terrorist attacks in Madrid on March 11, 2004 were carried out three days before the parliamentary elections and became the largest terrorist attacks in the history of the country and Europe. A total of nine explosive devices were detonated on four trains. Initially, responsibility was placed on the Basque separatist organization ETA. However, it was later established that the explosions were the work of Al-Qaeda Islamists, immigrants from North Africa. The date of the attacks was not chosen by chance; the explosions occurred exactly 911 days after the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. During the explosions, 191 people died - citizens of 17 states. The 192nd victim was a special forces soldier who died during the storming of the apartment where the terrorists were hiding. Seven participants in the terrorist attack, who did not want to surrender to the police, committed suicide in Leganes. Another 19 accomplices were sentenced in 2007 to various terms of imprisonment. Seven have already been released, the rest will be released in 2016 and 2017.

Straightaway . The explosions occurred during rush hour between 7:30 and 8:00 local time near Madrid's three train stations - Atocha, Santa Eugenia and Pozo Del Tio Raimundo - and at the city assembly. This was reported by the Spanish TV channel ABC.

With an interval of 4-5 minutes, 10 planted explosive devices exploded in the vicinity of Madrid:
3 explosions occurred at Atocha station
4 - in the area of ​​Telles street
1 - at Santa Eugenia station
2 - at El Pozo Del Tio Raimundo station
Another 3 explosive devices were discovered and detonated by the police.

In total, explosive devices went off in four trains: two trains at the Atocha railway station and two commuter trains approaching the capital at the Santa Eugenia and El Pozo Del Tio Raimundo stations.

An eyewitness to the incident, railway inspector Juan Camarca, said that the explosions occurred on trains traveling from Guadelajara to Alcalo de Henarez.

As it became known, Madrid police discovered two more unexploded bombs - at the Atocha train station and at another station, where an explosion also occurred today. All newly found bombs are destroyed by targeted explosions. Earlier, at about 12:00 Moscow time, the first unexploded bomb discovered at the Atocha train station was destroyed by the same explosion. It is reported that the police and authorities in Madrid are urging residents not to use vehicles so as not to impede the passage of emergency vehicles, BBC reports.

According to preliminary data, they died 193 person. Number of wounded - more 1400 . At the Atocha station, more than 40 were killed, more than 250 were injured, 25 of them in serious condition; at Santa Eugenia station 15 dead, 25 injured; on Pozo Del Tio, two carriages were completely blown up, about 30 dead, more than 40 wounded. As representatives of law enforcement agencies in Spain reported, clarifying the number of victims is complicated by the fact that the bodies of many of the dead remain blocked in trains mangled by explosions.

The sounds of emergency vehicle sirens were heard throughout the day throughout Madrid. The movement of all trains throughout Madrid was stopped, and the city was paralyzed by traffic jams.

Police cordons were set up around the perimeter of the three explosion sites: experts feared new terrorist attacks.

National Radio of Spain received a call from a woman who lives near the Pozo del Tio station. “I see scenes of hell. People are running in panic towards the Atocha station. I see the bodies of a boy and a man lying on the ground. On the train, or rather in what’s left of it, I still see people,” she said live .

The newspaper El Mundo cites eyewitness accounts of the terrorist attacks. As a girl who was standing at the Atocha station and waiting for her father, who was supposed to park the car and pick her up, reported, “the whole carriage was destroyed, only its iron skeleton remained.” "A sea of ​​blood and people running around in panic." At first she thought the train had gone off the tracks, but then realized it was an explosion.

One of the victims of the train explosion near Santa Eugenia station told ABC television that the train was crowded with people at the time of the explosion.

According to many witnesses, the explosives were placed between the cars for greater destructive power: the wave of the explosion came from there.

Doctors have set up a field hospital near the station, where the wounded are being treated. There were not enough ambulances to transport the victims. The wounded are being transported to hospitals by bus, CNN reports.

The city authorities also decided to block the movement of metro trains on the lines where the explosions occurred. Atocha is a huge transport complex in the city center with its own subway station. The station serves both commuter trains and long-distance trains. Citizens were urged not to panic.

Madrid hospitals have already appealed to residents of the capital to donate blood, which is already experiencing a shortage.

General elections are due to take place in Spain on March 14. In this regard, security forces were put on high alert. The Spanish government is confident that the terrorist attacks were carried out by Basque separatists and timed to coincide with the upcoming elections. Corresponding accusations against ETA have already been made. Since 1968, 868 people have become victims of Basque separatists. According to a parliamentary representative, the reasons that prompted the bloodshed are not clear.

One of the main slogans of its election campaign, the ruling party of Spain chose the slogan of tougher policies towards the Basque separatists.

Less than two weeks ago, police arrested two ETA members who were heading to Madrid. They were carrying 1,100 pounds of explosives. According to law enforcement agencies, the explosives were intended to organize terrorist attacks.

Immediately after the terrorist attacks, all political parties announced a temporary cessation of any election campaigns. The People's Party candidate for the post of prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, said that the election campaign ended due to the terrorist attacks.

PSOE candidate for Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero asked all parties to unite against terrorism and asked voters to come and vote on Sunday so as not to play into the hands of the ETA.

Deputy Prime Minister Rodrigo Rato visited the Atocha station to personally find out what happened and how. The mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, was also there. The Chairman of the Spanish Government, Jose Maria Aznar, receives operational information from the sites of terrorist attacks.

So far no one has taken responsibility for what happened.

There are no Russian citizens among those injured as a result of a series of terrorist attacks in Madrid, the Russian Embassy in Madrid reported. According to the embassy press attache, Russian diplomats have been working closely with local authorities since early morning, but there have been no reports that there are Russians among the victims. Later, reports appeared that among the victims there were several CIS citizens. According to the head of the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Markiyan Lubkivsky, among the wounded are three Ukrainian citizens. One of them received minor injuries and is in the Princess Hospital, another is hospitalized with a concussion and burns. The third woman was released from hospital after receiving emergency treatment.

Today's explosions can already be considered the largest terrorist attacks not only in several decades of armed struggle by Basque separatists for independence, but also in the history of modern Spain in general. Previously, the largest terrorist attack in 1987 was considered to be in a supermarket in Barcelona, ​​when 21 people were killed.

The Spanish government has declared three days of national mourning in memory of those killed in the Madrid attacks, El Pais reports.

This day in history:

A trial has begun in Spain against the organizers of the terrorist attacks on Madrid commuter trains on March 11, 2004, which killed 191 people and injured 1,755. The prosecutor's office is demanding a total of more than 270 thousand years in prison for the accused, and the current trial is already being called the largest trial of Islamists in the history of Europe.

There are 29 defendants in the dock, including 15 Moroccan citizens, two Syrians, an Algerian, an Egyptian, a Lebanese, and nine Spaniards. The latter are accused of aiding terrorists.

Early in the morning of March 11, 2004, during rush hour, 10 powerful explosions occurred in several Madrid trains. The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, allegedly part of al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attacks in Madrid. Terrorists placed backpacks containing industrial dynamite on four commuter trains and then blew them up using mobile phones.

The technology failed

According to investigators, the terrorists came up with the idea to organize explosions in Madrid after the September 11 attacks in the United States, when members of one of the al-Qaeda cells were arrested in Spain. The terrorists strengthened their intentions in 2003, when Madrid sent troops into Iraq. Finally, the final impetus for action was the appeal of Osama bin Laden on October 18, 2003. Then the al-Qaeda leader named Spain as a potential target for the Islamists.

The investigation claims that the terrorists mastered the technique of detonating charges using mobile phones at an Afghan training camp in Jalal-Abad. But it was precisely this technique that failed them: out of 13 backpacks filled with explosives, 10 exploded, and mobile phones found in unexploded bombs allowed the police to track down the organizers and perpetrators of the terrorist attack.

The Italians recorded the Egyptian

The court hearing began yesterday with the interrogation of the main accused Rabei Osman el-Sayed Ahmed, nicknamed the Egyptian. He is considered the inspirer and organizer of the terrorist attack, although he himself did not take part in it: a few days before the tragedy, he left for Italy, from where he directed the terrorists’ actions. There he was arrested on June 7, 2004.

The investigation has records of Egyptian telephone conversations made by Italian police after the explosions in Madrid. On one of the tapes, the terrorist says that it was he who organized the explosions in electric trains.

At subsequent hearings, the court will hear two other masterminds of the attacks - Youssef Belhadj, an al-Qaeda emissary to Western Europe, and Hassan al-Hasky, the leader of the so-called Islamic Group of Moroccan Fighters.

Symbolic punishment

Then the direct perpetrators of the terrorist attack will appear for interrogation - Moroccans Jamal Zougham and Abdelmajid Bouchard, as well as the Syrian Basel Galiun, for whom the prosecutor demands 38 thousand 656 years in prison. In total, according to investigators, there were 12 perpetrators, but seven more members of this group blew themselves up three weeks after the tragedy, when the house they were in was surrounded by police. Another performer died in Iraq, and one is still wanted.

The last to be interrogated are the terrorists' accomplices, including nine Spanish citizens who sold explosives to the terrorists. For them, the prosecutor demands a total of over 38 thousand years in prison.

The punishment for terrorists and their accomplices, which the prosecution insists on, is rather symbolic. According to Spanish law, the maximum term of imprisonment to which an offender can be sentenced is 40 years. In Spain, as in all 27 EU countries, the death penalty has been abolished.

Even before the trial began, the Spanish government raised the country's terrorist threat level from low to medium. True, Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba hastened to reassure citizens: the measures taken are primarily preventive.

Presumably until July of this year the court will consider evidence and interrogate the defendants. He will then hear testimony from 610 witnesses and more than 100 experts. A verdict is not expected until October 2007.