Terrible, just terrible..... :'( @ Glas: I received an SMS from Xavi, then I called him. He and his family are OK, so no direct worries there. The bombs detonated at Atocha trainstation, 2 minutes walking from Chuchi's home. Thank GOD she was sleeping at Xavi's place last night....
For info, but i'm sure it will get to all, i'll explain what my sister (who lives at 15 km form where they exploded) told me: there have exploded 3 trains. One, in Atocha, just in the center of Madrid, but, luckily, 500m before entering the deck. It had one bomb in each of the wagons (5 in total), but only have exploded 3 of them. They were placed in the center of the wagon, where everybody is placed to exit by one side or another. The other bombs have exploded in the same line but before they got to Atocha, in El Pozo (12 km before) and Santa Eugenia (10 km before). There were 2 bombs in each, but i don't know if all of them exploded. It has happened at about 7,40 am, when all students were going to university and school (one of my nephews was in the train that arrived to Atocha 6 mins before). Last report says 173 dead and over 600 injured.
@ Bas: Spoke to Xavi also, glad he and his family are all okay. Has anyone claimed responsibility for it yet? Naturally ETA is being blamed, but I think it might be related to Islamics and the war in Iraq. afaik ETA has never done anything on this scale before. -glas-
Xavi told me one or more of the bombs didn't go off. The bombs had been taken away and prelimanary examination has shown that, while ETA has never before used bombs of this design, an ETA-weapons cache has been discovered in which explosives and detonators of these types were found. Also, WHY would Al-Qaeda bomb Spain? Remember those demonstrations against the US-intervention in Iraq? Nowhere in Europe were these demonstrations this large. The Spanish public have shown that they're against their government's attitude towards the USA. Also, it's really difficult to organise such attacks in Spain. The Spanish anti-terror brigades are REALLY good (even better than in the UK). I think Al-Qaeda would rather bomb England than Spain.... On the other hand, it is VERY disturbing that exactly 2.5 years ago TODAY the WTC was blown up.....
True, I didnt realise the significance of the date. It just doesnt seem to have the hallmarks of an ETA attack. They are never quite so indiscriminate in who they attack, and certainly not on this kind of scale. Time will tell I suppose. All of a sudden, Celtic's game against Barcelona tonight in Glasgow, which would have been our biggest and most exciting game for years, seems completely insignificant now. I wish UEFA would agree to the postponement, at least as a mark of respect. -glas-
Well, some months ago, a journalist from Al-Jazeera was arrested in Spain, and it caused many demonstrations against Spain in islamic countries. Also, we know well ETA, and their big attacks are usually disabled, but this one has been extremely shocking and unexpected to be made by them. They usually don't attack civilians in massive attacks like this, and whenever a bomb can affect civilians, they always warn the police to evacuate the area. If they are the responsible of this attack, they'll loose all their "credibility" amongst their supporters for independence, because it has always been a behaviour typical in them, to fight the forces of order or politicians, but not civilians. IMHO, they're not responsible, but we'll have to wait to see if any other organization reivindicates it.
