The death toll pf the blasts upped to 198

MADRID, March 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The whole world Friday, March 12, continued to condemn the carnage resulting from train blasts in Spain, while speculations about who may be behind the “terrorist blasts” contained Spanish separatists, with reports claiming Al-Qaeda may be involved.

Spanish police found a stolen van containing an Islamic tape and seven detonators in the town of Alcala de Henares, where three of the four bombed trains originated Thursday, March 11.

But Spanish officials and analysts clearly keep the accusing finger at the ETA separatists, saying the van “clue” could be a distraction.

A London-based Arabic newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, issued a statement it said it had received from Al-Qaeda claiming responsibility, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The letter was sent by Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades on behalf of al-Qaeda, the paper claimed.

But the U.S. intelligence regards the al-Masri Brigades as lacking in credibility, the BBC News Online said.

The same group claimed responsibility for the huge power failures in New York and Canada last year, failures which turned out to have nothing to do with terrorism, it added.

U.S. intelligence and Spanish officials said it is not al-Qaeda's habit to claim responsibility so early.

As for the statement published by the Arabic-language paper, government spokesman Eduardo Zaplana said that according to the police “these groups take one or two months to claim” responsibility.

The coordinated carnage was one of the worst terror attacks in Europe, with 198 people dead and more than 1,400 others injured.

Before Elections

The atrocity came just three days before general elections that the ruling conservative Popular Party is widely expected to win.

The conservative ruling party- that is currently leading in the polls - has taken a hard-line stance against ETA, CNN reported.

The blasts could be deliberately staged to disrupt the polls.

Turn-Over

Before these bombs, many observers had been tempted to write off ETA as a spent force. Last year, three people died in violent attacks by Basque nationalists - the lowest total for 30 years.

But a crackdown by both the Spanish and French governments might have produced a new and more ruthless ETA leadership, Mia Soar, Europe editor for Jane's Sentinel Security Assessments said.

“They have a lot of young blood at the top. This could explain the new tactics," she told BBC News Online.

The group has demonstrated it has the expertise, as well as the explosives, to mount sophisticated bomb attacks.

Two suspected ETA members were arrested last month when police intercepted their truck east of Madrid.

Interior Minister Angel Acebes said at the time the truck had been carrying 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of explosives and 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of dynamite, to be used within the next few days in the capital.

"They even had a card marking an area, the Henares corridor, which is related to what happened this morning" and the explosive, dynamite, is "what ETA uses", he said.

Immediately after the blasts, the Interior Minister had said there was "no doubt" ETA was responsible. The Basque militant group has been blamed for the deaths of more than 800 people in its 36-year violent campaign for an independent northern homeland.

Describing the find of the van as “a new clue,” he said the focus of the investigation "remains ETA, but we must be very cautious and investigate other leads."

That recent seizures of explosives by Spanish police are consistent with a shift by ETA away from their usual targeted attacks towards mass indiscriminate violence, Sebastian Balfour, professor of contemporary Spanish studies at the London School of Economics, told the BBC.

Distraction

Government spokesman Zaplana late Thursday held ETA responsible for the attacks but denied that a suicide attack had been part of the series as earlier reported by the private radio station Cadena Ser which cited anti-terrorist sources.

“Everything leads to the criminal terrorist gang ETA,” Zaplana said on public TVE television.

Zaplana accused unidentified sources of confusing the issues.

Reports that there may also "have been a suicide attack or that there could be a Muslim among the dead, which has been denied by the police," are a "tall story", he added.

“Let's not get distracted, everything leads in the same direction: ETA,”
said Zaplana.

Israeli media, however, were mostly inclined to believe al-Qaeda network was behind a series of blasts on the trains.

“In Europe too,” wrote the mass circulation Yediot Aharonot on its frontpage headline Friday, noting that Al-Qaeda had claimed the deadly bombing.

“Welcome Europe to the world of mega-terror attacks,” read the paper's main editorial.

“11/3, Al-Qaeda,” said Ma’ariv front page headline.

The blasts occurred on trains and in railway stations packed with commuters, many of whom had to be cut free by emergency workers. Bodies were hauled away to a makeshift morgue.

In Madrid and throughout Spain, people took to central squares to hold protests against terrorism. Larger rallies were planned for late Friday.