Madrid Car Bomb Is the Sixth Since Offer by Premier
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MADRID, Spain – Suspected Basque rebels detonated a powerful car bomb during rush-hour in Madrid yesterday, injuring 52 people in the sixth attack since Spain’s prime minister offered the group negotiations if it renounces violence, authorities said.
An anonymous warning on behalf of the separatist group ETA to a pro-independence Basque newspaper preceded the morning blast in an area of office buildings and shops in a working-class neighborhood in Spain’s capital, officials said. Police had time to cordon off the area before the blast.
The explosion – the first blamed on ETA in Madrid since February – shattered windows and damaged building facades and cars, but none of the 52 people injured were critically wounded and only five of them were hospitalized, the city’s emergency medical services said.
The blast sent up a large column of black smoke and damaged about 20 buildings, shattering windows and scarring facades. Prime Minister Zapatero, speaking in a previously scheduled Senate session, condemned the blast and insisted, “the only fate that the terrorist group ETA has is to lay down weapons and dissolve.” He did not mention his offer of talks with ETA.
Police estimate the bomb contained 40-44 pounds of explosives, Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso told reporters.
Mr. Alonso said ETA remained “alive, active, and operative,” despite the arrest of more than 200 suspected members in recent years. He also said Spanish society was rife with speculation over whether the government had already begun contacts with ETA – which the government denied.
The blast was a show of force from ETA as it gears up for possible negotiations with the government, said Eduardo Uriarte, a convicted ETA commando member who served 12 years in jail after the sentence was commuted. He now rejects the group and works as a political analyst and peace activist.
Another former ETA member, Kepa Aulestia, said the attack was ETA’s way of building up leverage. “ETA cannot get down on its knees. At the negotiating table, it has to show up with cards.”
