2004 Madrid train bombings

2004 Madrid train bombings
Part of the spillover of the Iraq War, terrorism in Spain and Islamic terrorism in Europe
Remains of one of the trains, near Atocha station
Location	Madrid, Spain
Date	11 March 2004; 20 years ago (2004-03-11) 7:37 – 7:40 CET (UTC+01:00)
Target	Madrid commuter rail network, civilians
Attack type	Mass murder, time bombing, terrorism
Weapons	Backpacks filled with Goma-2 explosives
Deaths	200
Injured	2,500[1]
Perpetrators	Jamal Zougam and five other individuals
Motive	Opposition to Spanish participation in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars

The 2004 Madrid train bombings (also known in Spain as 11M) were a series of coordinated, nearly simultaneous bombings against the Cercanías commuter train system of Madrid, Spain, on the morning of 11 March 2004—three days before Spain's general elections. The explosions killed 200 people and injured around 2,500.^[1][2] The bombings constituted the deadliest terrorist attack carried out in the history of Spain and the deadliest in Europe since an airliner bombing in 1988.^[3] The attacks were carried out by individuals who opposed Spanish involvement in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]}

Controversy regarding the handling and representation of the bombings by the government arose, with Spain's two main political parties—the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and the Partido Popular (PP)—accusing each other of concealing or distorting evidence for electoral reasons. The bombings occurred three days before general elections in which incumbent Prime Minister José María Aznar's PP was defeated.^[11][4] Immediately after the bombing, leaders of the PP claimed evidence indicating the Basque separatist organization ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) was responsible for the bombings,^[4][12][13] while the opposition claimed that the PP was trying to prevent the public from knowing it had been an Islamist attack, which would be interpreted as the direct result of Spain's involvement in Iraq, an unpopular war which the government had entered without the approval of the Spanish Parliament.^[14] The scale and precise planning of the attacks reared memories of the September 11 attacks.^[4]

Following the attacks, there were nationwide demonstrations and protests demanding that the government "tell the truth."^[15] The prevailing opinion of political analysts is that the Aznar administration lost the general elections as a result of the handling and representation of the terrorist attacks, rather than because of the bombings per se.^{[16][17][18][19]} Results published in The Review of Economics and Statistics by economist José García Montalvo [es]^[20] seem to suggest that indeed the bombings had important electoral impact^[21] (turning the electoral outcome against the incumbent People's Party and handing government over to the Socialist Party, PSOE).

After 21 months of investigation, judge Juan del Olmo tried Moroccan national Jamal Zougam, among several others, for his participation carrying out the attack.^[22] Although claims were made that attacks were linked to al-Qaeda,^[23] investigations and probes conducted by Spanish officials did not find any links to al-Qaeda.^[5][7][8] Findings issued by the Spanish judiciary in September 2007 found 21 individuals of participating in the attacks, while rejecting the involvement of an external mastermind or direct al-Qaeda links.^{[24][25][26][27][28]}