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Europe
"Lions of al-Mufridoon" Claim Responsibility for Bombing in Spain
2004-03-11
From Jihad Unspun
Link fixed 10:22 CST.
JUS has learned the Lions of al-Mufridoon has claimed of responsibility for the attack. Previously unknown, the group is suspected of links to Al-Qaida. Spain has been warned of their involvement with the "Crusader" army of George Bush and Tony Blair in previous Al-Qaida statements and more recently in both the last statements issued by Osama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, which followed the attack on the Spanish embassy in Iraq. ... Spain has been the most vocal supporter of the "War on Terrorism" with troops still inside Afghanistan and currently 1400 soldiers fighting in Iraq. It is thought that if this latest attack is attributed to the war in Iraq that it could collapse president Jose Maria Aznar's vote in Sunday’s general elections.
Posted by:Mike Sylwester

#18  Right on, Squire.
Posted by: Howard UK   2004-3-12 4:00:14 AM  

#17  Me too Howard. Get the guns, call the dogs open the gates and move out.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-3-11 6:00:01 PM  

#16  Shit... maybe I was wrong.
Posted by: Howard UK   2004-3-11 4:13:45 PM  

#15  Spanish police has just found a suspect vehical carrying detonators & a tape in Arabic..
Posted by: lyot   2004-3-11 2:55:50 PM  

#14  Mufridoon is a rare Arabic form, so rare that it may actually be a bad translation from another language, and it can also mean Separatists.

I would suggest the following: this was either ETA or al-Qaida. The Separatists label certainly suggests ETA. If ETA, then they are either deliberately suggesting that they have ties to al-Qaeda or that they identify with al-Qaeda. That would be stupid. So it may be that some anti-ETA folks sent in this claim to responsibility to try to give the bombing an Islamic context, stirring up already profound anti-Arab racism in Spain and also drawing the attention of those of us concerned about Islamic terror. The alternative is that this was al-Qaeda and they're trying to force an ETA alliance by adopting their cause.

The bottom line: using this name was smart if done by al-Qaeda but dumb if done by ETA.
Posted by: Saut al muataddal   2004-3-11 12:22:36 PM  

#13  Hmm. Am I the only one who read the title of the group as "Lions of al muldoon"?
Posted by: Ptah   2004-3-11 12:22:24 PM  

#12  ruprecht - alternatively, Europe could look at this and decide its time to distance themselves even further from the United States and any hint of helping in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Posted by: Dakotah   2004-3-11 11:38:10 AM  

#11  Screwed up in that any gains they might have made in the past decade are gone and they may have just given the Conservative Party a landslide in the local elections. Even if they are not responsible, their timid rejection and the ETA fellows caught trying to do a similar attack for Christmas will be fresh in everyones memory when they go to the polls this week.

If it was Al Queda or one of their little gang of thugs they made a big mistake. Europe is filled with commuter trains in way the US liberals could only drool over. Every commuter is gonna watch this and realize their vunerability. European centrists might start to think this is an actual war and not an extravigent police action.

Of course the European left will probably suggest abandoning Spain since it was once Islamic and the illegal Spanish occupation only incites more violence, but that's them. They hate civilization.
Posted by: ruprecht   2004-3-11 11:04:47 AM  

#10  OK, by'screwed-up' I meant that they've been extremely succesful (perhaps too successful)in achieving their aims. I don't think we'll see them proudly boasting about it in the media, however. Similar to the IRA losing credibility after the Omagh bombing.
Posted by: Howard UK   2004-3-11 10:45:54 AM  

#9  Googled the group and found this, for whatever it's worth (the meaning of the name):

'mufridoon'(= those who single out themselves)
Link
Posted by: Chuck Simmins   2004-3-11 10:23:49 AM  

#8  Howard, what do you mean, "ETA screwed up" ?
They planted at least six explosive devices..Whoever did it, it was a safe guess that this would involve lots of casualties.
Posted by: lyot   2004-3-11 10:18:15 AM  

#7  Thanks for fixing the link, Bulldog.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester   2004-3-11 10:11:23 AM  

#6  I doubt this has anything to do with the arabs. Looks like ETA has screwed up and promptly swallowed its tongue.
Posted by: Howard UK   2004-3-11 9:50:12 AM  

#5  It should point here, I think.
Posted by: Bulldog   2004-3-11 9:43:57 AM  

#4  Why does the link point to rantburg.com?
Posted by: Gromky   2004-3-11 9:35:28 AM  

#3  Anyone heard of these morons before, or is ETA just using a cover?

Still, the Basque seperatists have mostly been about capping authority figures, not mass slaughter.
Posted by: Hiryu   2004-3-11 9:25:55 AM  

#2  Time for the Moor Killers to get in on the action.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-3-11 9:21:51 AM  

#1  A horrific event. This may be a wake up call for Europe.
Posted by: dataman1   2004-3-11 9:14:35 AM  

00:00