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Details about the al-Qaeda video found in the Madrid rubble
Islamists, believed responsible for the March 11 bombings in Madrid, threatened further attacks even after the new Spanish government takes over next week because of anger over the presence of Spanish troops in Afghanistan, Spainâs interior ministry said on Tuesday. A video tape recorded by the three suspected masterminds of the Madrid train bombings shortly before they and four other accomplices blew themselves up to avoid capture by police indicated that more attacks were planned after the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is sworn in next week. "After determining that the situation has not changed and that your new government launched its mandate by a crackdown against Muslims and the dispatching of additional troops to Afghanistan, the Ansar al-Qaeda and death brigades have decided to follow the path of Jihad and resistance," the suspects said in their recorded video message, a transcript of which was released by the ministry. The video showed three armed, masked men, one of whom read out a statement containing the ultimatum in the name of "the Al Mufti and Ansar al-Qaeda brigades". The videotape, demanding the "immediate" withdrawal of Spanish troops from "Muslim lands"-a reference to the US-led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan-was found in the ruins of the apartment where the seven Islamic militants committed collective suicide.According to the transcript, the Islamists gave the Spanish government a one-week ultimatum to withdraw its troops from "Muslim bases immediately and unconditionally" or face Jihad. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-04-14 |
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