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Bombersâ vow: Spain will be inferno
The Socialist will soon learn, appeasement doesnât work.It only makes things worse A GROUP claiming responsibility for the Madrid bombings sent a fax to a newspaper warning it would turn Spain "into an inferno" unless the country halted its support for the US and withdrew its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. The fax, a handwritten letter in Arabic, was received by the daily ABC on Saturday evening, just hours before five terror suspects blew themselves up in an apartment in Leganes, south of Madrid, to avoid police capture. The government believes the suicide blast killed two of the alleged ringleaders of last monthâs Madrid train bombings, including one known as "the Tunisian", and four other suspects, leaving the core of the terror group either dead or in jail. Two or three suspects may have escaped before the blast, which also killed a special forces officer and wounded 15 other policeman. The letter to ABC was signed by Abu Dujana Al Afgani, Ansar Group, al-Qaeda in Europe, the same person who claimed responsibility for the March 11 bombings in a video found outside a Madrid mosque two days after the attacks. "Given that the Spanish state has continued with its injustices and aggressions against Muslims by sending fresh troops to Iraq and its intention to send more soldiers to Afghanistan," the letter gave a deadline of Sunday, April 4, to fulfil its demands of ending support for the United States and withdrawing troops from both countries. "If these demands are not met, we will declare war on you and we swear by Allah the highest and most sublime that we will convert your country into an inferno and your blood will flow like rivers," the letter added. In the letter, the group said that it had showed its force with the "blessed attacks of March 11" and the planting of a bomb along the high-speed railway line linking Madrid and the Seville last week, which did not explode. ABC cited unidentified sources in Spainâs National Intelligence Centre as saying the letterâs authenticity appeared "fairly credible". It said the language used in the letter was similar to that used in the video. The intelligence agency has linked the Ansar group to the Tunisian ringleader killed in the suicide blast Saturday evening. Ansar al-Islam is an Islamic extremist guerrilla group blamed for terrorist strikes in Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and Morocco. A respected French private investigator says Spanish police believe that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terror suspect with links to the Ansar group and al-Qaeda, masterminded the Madrid railway attacks. Many saw the bombings as a reprisal for the Spanish governmentâs support for the US-led invasion of Iraq. The opposition Socialist party, which had opposed the war along with most Spaniards, won a surprise victory in the elections. In one of its first statements, the party said it planned to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq by June 30 unless the United Nations took control of the situation there. The party later said it intended doubling its troop numbers in Afghanistan to 250 to show it was committed to fighting terrorism. Posted by: tipper 2004-04-05 |
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