On this day: the Madrid train bombings

Exactly two years and six months after terrorists struck the World Trade centre, a similarly-inspired group bombed ten sites in Madrid, including the busy interchange at Atocha station.

More than 190 people were killed and 1,800 were injured in the attacks, which occurred three days before the Spanish general election. At the vote, the Spanish people voted then Prime Minister, Jose Aznar, out of office.

Aznar had supported the invasion of Iraq, and for many in Spain the bombings were a sign he should not have.

Terror was not new to Spain and initially Basque separatist group Eta was blamed by the authorities. But a group by the name of called “Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigades of Al-Qaeda” released a statement claiming responsibility for the massacre and describing it as “part of a settling of old accounts with Crusader Spain, the ally of the United States, in its war against Islam.”