A bomb defused on a high-speed Spanish rail track was so like those used to blow up four Madrid trains that the same militant Islamist group is believed to be responsible in both cases, Spanish newspapers say. A bomb containing 12 kg (26 lb) of explosives was spotted by railway workers on the track near the city of Toledo on Friday and made safe. Investigators believe attackers planned to derail a high-speed train on the line connecting Madrid and the southern city of Seville. Hundreds of people could have been killed if a train travelling at 250 kph (160 mph) had left the tracks, Madrid newspapers said.
Spanish newspapers pointed the finger at Islamist militants over Friday's incident and said, if this theory was confirmed, it posed a grave security problem for Spain. El Pais said the fact the same kind of explosives and a similar detonator was found in Friday's bomb and the March 11 Madrid bombs "suggests that in both cases it is the same terrorist organisation, supposedly the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group." El Mundo newspaper quoted Interior Ministry sources as saying that Islamic terrorists may be behind the latest bomb. Several newspapers reported that the Spanish embassy in Egypt had recently received a letter signed by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades and al Qaeda threatening to attack embassies, consulates and Spanish interests in north Africa and the southern and eastern Mediterranean region. The letter said the attacks could be avoided if Spain withdrew its soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan in the next four weeks, El Mundo reported.
| Trustworthy, aren't they? But I notice we're also dealing with two separate groups. My suspicion is that the Moroccan group is the one with the explosives, and the Abu Hafs brigades is the one with the threats and fulminations... |
El Pais said that if the same group that carried out the Madrid bombings was responsible for planting the bomb on Friday, it posed a "very serious security problem".
| Yeah. You can never be completely safe from psychos, can you? |
"It indicates...we are not talking about a passing terrorism ...but a stable presence prepared for any barbarity," it said in an editorial. High-speed trains on the Madrid-Seville line were halted on Friday while police painstakingly inspected the entire track, disrupting travel at the start of one of the busiest times of the year. Interior Minister Angel Acebes said the type of dynamite in Friday's bomb was apparently similar to that used in the Madrid attacks, but he ventured no theories about who was to blame. The government ordered the army to help guard key rail lines and installations after the incident. Acebes said security forces believed the bomb was planted on Friday morning. The dynamite on the track was connected by a 136 metre (yard) cable to a detonator. However, the electrical mechanism needed to activate an explosion was missing, leading investigators to believe the bombers were interrupted and aborted their mission. |