LONDON -- The terrorist attacks on trains in Madrid in March, which killed more than 200 people and maimed or wounded hundreds more, were planned and executed by Islamic extremists from Morocco, probably with connections to al-Qaeda. It has been claimed that the attacks were inspired by opposition to Spanish support for the Americans in Iraq. It has also been argued that they reflect Arab resentment at the expulsion of Arabs from Andalusia more than 500 years ago and the ambition to reinstate Islam on the Iberian Peninsula.
The attacks came on the eve of the March 14 Spanish general election. It had been generally expected that the Popular Party conservatives would be returned to power. They were defeated, the election won by Spanish Socialists under their young leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who had called for Spanish withdrawal from Iraq. Spanish support for America in Iraq was widely unpopular in Spain.
Nevertheless, the conservatives might have been successful if they had not made the error of rushing to pin the blame for the bombings on the Basque separatist terror group ETA.