Spain says al Qaeda claims responsibility for blasts

2.30pm UPDATE

MADRID - A videotape purportedly from al Qaeda says the Islamic militant group bombed Madrid trains in retaliation for Spain's cooperation with the United States over Iraq, Interior Minister Angel Acebes says.

"It's a claim made by a man in Arabic with a Moroccan accent. He makes the declaration in the name of someone who says he is the military spokesman of al Qaeda in Europe," Acebes told reporters in Madrid on Sunday.

"If you don't stop your injustices more blood will flow and these attacks are very little compared with what may happen with what you call terrorism," the tape said, adding that the bombings were a response "to the crimes you have caused in the world, concretely in Iraq and Afghanistan".

Acebes said television station Telemadrid received a call from a man with an Arabic accent saying that a videotape had been put in a waste paper bin on the outskirts of Madrid. Police recovered it.

Spain said it was examining the reliability of the tape and urged caution.

The announcement came just hours after Acebes said Spanish authorities had arrested three Moroccans and two Indians, possibly with ties to Moroccan militants, in the worst guerrilla attacks in the West since September 11, 2001.

If investigators find al Qaeda or an affiliated group was behind the attacks, which killed 200 people and injured 1,500, it could have huge global security implications.

"The third front has been opened. We've had America. We've had western interests in the Third World, and now we've had Europe," said Tim Ripley, research associate at Centre of Defence and International Security Studies, University of Lancaster in Britain.

Authorities in the West had been successful in stopping all major al Qaeda strikes for the last two and a half years, and while they expected an attack would come some day, they also hoped to hear at least some "chatter" beforehand.

"The threat of being taken by surprise is far more unsettling than having a known threat," Ripley said.

MOBILE PHONES USED IN BLASTS

While government ministers pointed an early finger at Basque separatists ETA, an Arabic language audio tape, together with detonators, was found on Thursday in a van parked near the Alcala de Henares station where three of the four bombed trains originated.

Investigators believe mobile phones were used to detonate 10 bombs hidden in backpacks on the four trains.

Those arrested on Saturday were suspected of being involved in the sale and falsification of a mobile phone and SIM card found in an unexploded bomb on one of the trains, Acebes said.

Spanish voters head to the polls on Sunday to cast ballots in a general election overshadowed by the attacks.

Aznar stands down at the vote but polls going into the election showed his moderate, hand-picked successor Mariano Rajoy ahead of Socialist rival Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The election had been expected to focus on the robust economy and autonomy demands from Spain's powerful regions. The only real question was whether the PP would win a second consecutive absolute majority or if it would be forced to cut a deal with regional parties to return to office.

But following Thursday's attacks, the vote could become a referendum on Aznar's decision to join the US-led war in Iraq, the government's handling of security issues and its early insistence Basque separatist guerrillas were to blame despite evidence pointing to possible Islamic militant involvement.

Thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets across Spain on Saturday night demanding to know "the truth" behind the rail bombs, denouncing the ruling Popular Party, and shouting slogans like "Don't Manipulate Our Dead!"

Some 32.6 million Spaniards are entitled to vote on Sunday.

Political analysts said the PP stands to win votes if the culprits turned out to be ETA, because it has campaigned on its hardline stance against the armed Basque group.

But if the attacks were the work of ETA, they would also be a major escalation for a group that has killed 850 people in Spain over 36 years and is listed as a terrorist group by the United States and European Union.

If al Qaeda or other radical Islamic groups were shown to be involved, voters might perceive the attacks as the price for Aznar's domestically unpopular support of the Iraq war.

But they might also rally around a government seen as strong on security.

Government ministers angrily denied suggestions by some critics that they might be focusing on ETA, rather than al Qaeda, for internal political gain.

MOROCCAN TEAM TO MADRID

A Moroccan security team was headed to Madrid on Sunday to help with the investigation, a government official said.

North Africa is home to a number of militant Islamist groups and the United States is concerned al Qaeda guerrillas could be looking for new footholds in the region from which to strike.

Last May, suicide bombers attacked a Spanish restaurant, a five-star hotel and a Jewish community centre in Casablanca killing 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers.

Suspects in those bombings have been arrested in Spain.


- REUTERS