The Madrid bombings which killed 200 people were dramatically claimed by the Islamic militant group al-Qaeda early on Sunday morning.
The Interior Minister Angel Acebes said police had recovered a videotape. ”It’s a claim made by a man in Arabic with a Moroccan accent,” he said. ”He makes the declaration in the name of someone who says he is the military spokesman of al- Qaeda in Europe.”
The man on the tape says: ”We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid exactly two-and-a-half years after the attacks on New York and Washington. This is an answer to the crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. If your injustices do not stop there will be more if god wills it.”
The discovery of the tape followed a phone call to a radio station announcing that it had been left near the main mosque in Madrid. The speaker was identified as Abu Dujan al Afghani. Acebes said he was not known to police in Spain, and they were checking the tape’s veracity. He urged caution in accepting it as true.
The dramatic revelation of the tape followed the arrest of five men over their alleged involvement in the bombings which have convulsed Spain with grief.
The three Moroccans and two Indians were arrested in the city last night for allegedly providing a mobile phone and SIM card found in a backpack with unexploded explosives on one of the commuter trains targeted in Thursday’s attacks. Mobile phones were used to detonate the bombs which killed 200 people. Sources claimed the Moroccans may have provided safe houses for the bombers.
Acebes said: ”This opens an important route of investigation. All the detentions were made ”for presumed implication in the sale and falsification of the mobile phone and cards found in the bag that did not explode”.
Two Spaniards of Indian origin were also giving statements to police, he added. One or more of the arrested may have links to Moroccan militant groups, he said, but it was too early to say for sure.
”This is an open investigation which is only just starting. At the moment, there is a search going on in various buildings and homes. It’s the beginning of the investigation, but it opens an important path to advance down.”
Moroccan security experts are expected in Madrid today. The three nationals were identified as Jamal Zougam (30) Mohamed Bekkali (31) a mechanic, and Mohamed Chaoui (34) all from northern Morocco.
The arrests came as Spaniards buried their dead amid growing anger over the Anzar government failure to disclose who was responsible. A night after millions had taken to the streets of Spanish cities to denounce the killings, thousand returned demanding to know the ”truth”.
An angry crowd of 5 000 defied police orders against demonstrating on the day before an election gathered outside the headquarters of Prime Minister José Maria Aznar’s People’s Party last night shouting: ”Our dead, your war!” and ”Before we vote, we want the truth!”
”You must leave. You cannot have a demonstration or any other kind of [political] act on the day of reflection,” a police officer told the swelling crowd before van-loads of riot police began arriving late in the evening.
Spontaneous demonstrations broke out in several other Spanish cities, including the Basque city of Bilbao, where 8 000 gathered.
Today’s Spanish general election has been completely overshadowed by the attacks, as Aznar and his government were accused of a politically motivated cover-up.
Even before the tape or the arrests were known a growing undercurrent of opinion wasquestioning the official line that the Basque separatist terror group ETA is the main suspect, and blaming Aznar for holding back information, was circulatinglast night and the arrests threw petrol on people’s already simmering resentment.
”We are just people who want the truth. Our pain has been caused by Aznar’s support for Bush,” said protester Kika Castejón.
”I am indignant about this,” said Luis Maria Garcia, a law professor who started arguing with the demonstrators. ”This is a sign that they [the Left] have lost the elections.”
In Pamplona, a police officer shot the father of two people jailed for pro-Basque separatist street violence after he had reportedly refused to hang a black bow on the door of his shop. The policeman’s son was also arrested.
There were unconfirmed reports of confrontations between police and demonstrators following the death of the man, Angel Berroeta (61). ”Cowards! Murderers!” and ”Viva España!”, the crowd at the Bernabeu shouted before Real Madrid’s match last night.
Acebes was forced to make a statement on the issue: ”The government has not twisted or hidden the evidence. We have made information clear with all transparency. There has been no covering up.”
He denied that any senior investigator had told him that al-Qaeda was to blame. But Spain’s main radio station, Cadena SER, last night quoted intelligence sources claiming they were 99% sure the attack was carried out by between 10 and 15 Islamist extremists.
Jorge Dezcallar, the government-appointed head of the National Intelligence Centre, later denied the report.
Socialist leader José Luis RodrÃÂguez Zapatero is reported to have told his party to avoid any debate on ”a cover-up” while the dead are being buried and some of the injured are still fighting for their lives. – Guardian Unlimited Â