Madrid-Attacks,+2004

=The March 11, 2004 attacks in Madrid=

On March 11, 2004, a series of bombs exploded on four trains in Madrid, the capital of Spain. The bombs were "released" with few minutes apart, which caused 191 killed and 1841 injured people. This attack was considered the worst attack in Europe since the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, where a plane crashed because of a terrorist bomb. In the Lockerbie distaster, 243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 people in Lockerbie died, people from 21 different nations.

The trains that got bombed, had left the station in Alcala de Henares, which are 19 miles from Madrid. The bombs exploded when the four trains was either at stations or outside on the rails. The trains were probably loaded with the explosives in Alcala de Henares, and 3 of them actually failed to go off. They were placed in the trains close to Atocha Station and El Pozo Station, but the bombs were later deactivated by professionals.
 * Description**

The police arrested more than 70 suspects in the investigation and determined the attacks were directed by an al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist cell. In April, a month after the train bombing, seven of the main suspects died in an explosion at a flat in Madrid, because the police where getting close to them. Including these seven was Tunisian Serhane ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, the alleged mastermind behind the bombing. Later, 21 people were convicted of involvement in the bombings, while 3 of the main suspects got the most severe form of imprisonment. The men who had sold the explosives to the terrorists were also arrested.
 * Aftermath**

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (current Prime Minister of Spain from The Socialist Workers' Party) claimed in December 2004, that the PP (People's Party) government destroyed every document related to the attacks, except the paper documents. PP means that the attack is a plot to remove the sitting government from power. This theory implicate that members of the international and national secret service were involved in the bombings. AVT, the largest organisation of victims of terror in Spain, has given support to this theory. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
 * Conspiracy theories**

Sources: 1. //BBC NEWS: Madrid train attacks.// URL: [] [Access date: 04.11.2010] 2. //Wikipedia: Lockerbie.// URL: [] [Access date: 04.10.2010] 3. //Wikipedia: Pan Am Flight 103.// URL: [] [Access date: 04.10.2010]