Essay on 11 March 2004 Madrid Train Bombings: Europe's Worst Attack Since WWII

On the 11th of March 2004, 193 Spanish died on the spot, and over 2,000 others severely injured when a group of unknown terrorists launched ten bombs in four trains from three different stations. In the Madrid Train Bombings are considered among the worst attacks in European history since the occurrence of World War II, investigators found out that the terrorists launched the bombs through mobile phones. Moreover, the authorities initially suspected that the attack was the work of Basque separatists military group. Still, they later received evidence mounting against an Islamic militant group tied to Al-Qaeda. Further investigations reveal that the blasts were from improvised devices that the perpetrators stocked in backpacks and took aboard on the four trains. Although, the target of the terrorists was the Atocha station of Madrid where they detonated seven of the bombs; they also launched some aboard trains El Poso and Santa Eugina stations. As guided by the gruesome bombing events in the Madrid blasts, the analysis outcomes of this essay focus on the impacts of the bombings on global terrorists.

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Madrid train bombings may not be an ordinary form of violence because of the characteristics of both the composition of the perpetrators and the motive of the attack (McWilliams, 2020). For any type of abuse to be a terror attack, it has to have an act of violence whose players are non-state actors (Santuraki, 2020). Additionally, the attack must be targeting the civilian population and aimed at causing fear amongst them to achieve political objectives. For this reason, the Madrid train bomb blasts is a terror attack because it involved a group of extreme Islamist terrorists attached to the Al-Qaeda from the Middle East. Besides, the attackers were in a mission suspected to be retaliation in Spain for participating in the war between Afghanistan and Iraq.

On the other hand, the terrorists involved in the bombings were attached to the known International extreme Islamic group that was on a revenge mission. The attack occurred after Abu Dujana al-Afghani shared a video, Al-Qaeda's spokesman in Europe claimed responsibility for the bombings in Madrid (Reinares, 2017). Also, the video proved the earlier notion of the Spanish government and the investigators who felt this was a retaliation attack. Additionally, they used this attack to send a message to both Spain and America that they were revenging their involvement in the war between Afghanistan and Iraq.

The rivalry between the two countries from the East had been long going on, and as an international peace call, the United States and Spain involved themselves to ensure peace and normalcy. As much as the action taken by the western nations was a call aimed at bringing international order and promoting globalization, the Middle East extremists saw this as an intrusion. Therefore, they had been planning a significant revenge attack for a long time and saw it would be better to start with massive destruction in the most populated Spanish city of Madrid. As a result, they managed to kill 193 civilians on the spot injuring more than 2,000 others, and it went down in history that this was one of the most destructive events after World War II (Noakes, 2020). Having been an invent that involved a terror group from the Middle East, the Spanish authority had to reorganize law enforcement agencies and call for the international corporation as a counter-terror plan. The measures taken by the then prime minister made the attack a proxy affair due to the involvement of international bodies to assist the weakened Spain law enforcement agencies. Besides, the event came during an election period, and there was a need for normalcy because, at the time of investigations, the prime minister suspected the EAT. Contrary to the blames, the perpetrators took the responsibility of the attack, and it called for new strategies to counter the incident through the involvement of international bodies.

In the video sent to the Spain authorities, the bombers sent a message of taking responsibility for the deadly attack and warning the western nations against indulgence on Eastern matters. Moreover, they wanted to prove to the entire west that they were powerful, and anyone who would interfere with their affairs anywhere in the world would face the plight (Sanchez-Carretero, 2019). Therefore, it came out clear that the video message was not just to make the records clear concerning what they already did but to send a message to the world. The warning aimed to ensure that the West countries stay away from the affairs of the East and having them as an ever rebellious state to international relations, the war would not end in that sphere soon.

As a counter-terror action, the Spanish authorities linked owners of an apartment south of the city of Madrid to the attack. Moreover, in ensuring that they cleared the mess and brought back the country into temporary normalcy, the police forces launched raids. As a result, seven of the suspects killed themselves. Additionally, one of the officers also died in a bomb that the seven suspects launched. One other terrorist reportedly killed on the train as 29 more others arrested (Vidino et al., 2017). After a lengthy trial of about five months in 2007, the authorities convicted 21 of the terrorists, including Rabei Osman, who was the alleged ring leader who they later acquitted.

On the contrary, the much that the Spanish government did to ensure an effective counter-terror did not bear much fruit on the destruction caused by the terrorist. Spain did much to clear the massive mess resulting from the war and managed to arrest and acquits the ring leader in the bombings. Unfortunately, did this not move the perpetrators and they still went ahead and sent their message of warning to Spain and any other nation that would dare interfere with the affairs of the East. Having a robust economic background with sponsorship from the world's biggest terror group Al-Qaeda, the terror group involved in the attack felt much more reliable than before even after the counter-terror efforts of the Spanish government.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Madrid Train Bombings are considered among the worst attacks in European history since the occurrence of World War II. With 193 Spanish died on the spot and over 2,000 others severely injured, the war had an international motive of causing fear and tension in the west. Also, the Al-Qaeda group wanted to use his attack to achieve some of its objectives, like removing Aznar from office for his involvement in the Iraq war and siding with the American government. Therefore, the deadly attack had a long connection with the East most know terror group fronting its international objectives by launching mass civilian killings.

References

McWilliams, S. (2020). Psychopath?: Why We Are Charmed By The Anti-Hero. Mercier Press.

Noakes, L. (2020). Dying: Death and destruction of the body in war. In Dying for the nation. Manchester University Press.

Reinares, F. (2017). Al-Qaeda's Revenge: The 2004 Madrid Train Bombings. Columbia University Press.

Sanchez-Carretero, C. (2019). Emotions, Neighbors, and Nation-State Identifications at the Grassroots Memorials of the Madrid Train Bombings. Ethnologie francaise, (1), 77-88.

Santuraki, S. U. (2020). Armed Non-State Actors and State Failure: Failing International Law or Failure of International Law. Jurnal Undang-Undang dan Masyarakat, 24.

Vidino, L., Marone, F., & Entenmann, E. (2017). Fear thy neighbor: radicalization and jihadist attacks in the west. Edizioni.