Madrid, 12 March (AKI) - Three years on from the deadly bombings of commuter trains at the Atocha rail station in Madrid on 11 March 2004, the risk of a fresh terror attack in Spain is now higher than ever, according to terrorism experts quoted by El Pais daily. The worst al-Qaeda inspired terror attacks on European soil, they killed 191 people and injured 1,800.
Recent taped messages issued by al-Qaeda's second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri have called on Muslims to reconquer southern Spain - or al-Andalus as it was known during Arab rule - the paper notes, quoting anonymous anti-terror experts, intelligence sources, police and the civil guard. Extremist messages posted to Islamist webistes have also called for Muslims to "free" the "occupied" Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the North African coast.
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Spain remains a "target of choice," according to El Pais. "Generally we're worse off than before," an unnamed anti-terror source said, quoted by the paper. High profile anti-terror magistrate Baltasar Garzon has also voiced concern: "Spain finds itself at the frontline," he said in a reference to the police operations against Islamist extremists, jihadi recruitment and terrorism financing have been multiplying in Spain.
The trial against 29 mainly North Africans suspected of involvement in the Madrid train bombings also got underway in mid-February and is expected to last six months. In a complex investigation that took three years, investigators have called for jail sentences totalling over 270,000 years in jail for the 29 defendants. Since the deadly Madrid train bombings, the number of agents from Spain's national intelligence service, the civil guard, and police engaged in fighting international terrorism has increased ten-fold from 150 to approximately 1,500. |