STORM2K

MADRID, Spain — Powerful explosions rocked three Madrid (search) train stations Thursday just days before Spain's general elections, killing at least 131 rush-hour commuters and wounding hundreds more in what officials called the deadliest attack ever by the Basque (search) separatist group ETA.



"This is a massacre," government spokesman Eduardo Zaplana (search) said.

At least two bombs exploded around 7:30 a.m. local time in a commuter train arriving at Atocha station, a bustling hub for subway, commuter and long-distance trains in Spain's capital. Blasts rocked two other stops on a commuter line leading to Atocha.

People in tears streamed away from Atocha station as rescue workers carried bodies covered in sheets of gold fabric. People with bloodied faces sat on curbs, using cellphones to tell loved ones they were alive. Hospitals appealed for blood donations.

Shards of twisted metal were scattered by rails in the Atocha station at the spot where an explosion severed a train in two.

"There were people destroyed, blown up, without legs," said Oscar Romero, an emergency medical worker who arrived at Atocha an hour after the bombs went off.

"There were two cars in pieces with bodies underneath," he said. "We had to pick up bits of people and put them on stretchers. It's the worst I've ever seen in this job."

At all three stations, it was not immediately clear if the bombs went

OMG! I can't believe i missed this thread! They were our staunchest allies second to Britain during the Iraq campaign so i hope we get down to the bottom of this ASAP! Hopefully no more war though

btw the numbers have jumped to 173 on cnn.com

They have now found several bombs that were not detonated in the attack. The big question is ETA or Al-Qaeda.

What is the ETA???

There was an article on here saying an attack was stopped in spain a Few weeks back. I think that was the eta in the previous attempt. Hopefully they get those behind this soon who ever they are. Very Sad

ETA is a terror type group in spain and has had limited sucess. If it was them then they scored big time. Reporting 5 backpack type bombs were detonated.

Yes, I believe I posted the story. It was the ETA that was planning to carry out that attack. Apparently, we didn't find enough! How sad.

This is terrible. If Eta is responsible, they are hurting their goals. The millions of Basques who want a peaceful settlement of the issues aren't behind this, but the few hotheads, like the few hotheads in Islam, or any other dispute, spoil everything, because now the Spanish government is not even going to consider talking with them.

I woke up in the middle of the night and saw this on a Fox News Alert. They were estimating about 45 dead or so at the time. That was bad enough, but I'm really sad to see how many more were killed.

Now it is over 170 people dead.

192 dead and 1.423 injured is the last count that the minister of information of Spain said a few minutes ago.THe minister of interior of Spain said this afternoon that ETA was the prime suspect but a car was found in Madrid with CORAN messages and that raised the red flag for the Spaniard authorities that it well be a combined work of ETA and AL-QAEDA.ETA always claim responsability to all of their events of terror in Spain but this time no claim of responsability has been heard so that angle also raises eyebrows that AL-QAEDA may be the ones.

ETA is a long-standing group of terrorists who want separation from both Spain and France, so that they have their own country.

The generic term for these people is "Basque", but they are unique...in that the language they speak has no known ties to any other on Earth, and may well be a direct throwback to the Stone Age (the language is characterized by frequent usage of the letters K, X and Z, and is unintelligble to outsiders). This may have happened due to millennia of isolation by these people in the Pyrenees Mountains, while the rest of Europe came, went and passed them by intact.

They are a small, tough and determined group, and of course Al Qaida would definitely use them for its own agenda (as it has elsewhere with other terror groups).

One now wonders about those railway bombs in France that have been reported...but not yet discovered or detonated.

Al-Qaeda claims responsibility!!

Oh boy Kelly I just heard it and DANG the dow is crashing downwards after the news.

Figures.

Al-Qaeda is horrible. They need to be deported to Mars.

{actually laughs when thinking of Osama being on Mars lol}

He could live in a hole like his buddy Saddam.

How awful! I pray for those victims and their families.

This can't help but make people much more nervous about Al-Qaeda again. This is their first big terrorist act since 9/11.

just points out this is no time to elect kerry