Tough choices ahead for the left:
Saturday, March 13, 2004 Posted: 9:21 PM EST (0221 GMT)

Spaniards hold posters reading "Paz," the Spanish word for "Peace."

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Video alleges al Qaeda behind attack

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A town in mourning

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Arrests made in Spanish bomb probe

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• TIME.com: Regional ruckus in Spain

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• CNN in Spanish

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MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish authorities arrested five people Saturday as part of the investigation into a series of bombings that killed 200 people.

And a man appearing in a videotape claiming to be a military spokesman for al Qaeda in Europe says the terror group is behind Thursday's 10 coordinated bombings. The tape has not been independently verified.

The videotape, released by Interior Minister Angel Acebes, says: "We declare our responsibility for what occurred in Madrid, just 2.5 years after the attacks in New York and Washington.

"It is a response to your collaboration with the criminals [U.S. President] Bush and his allies. This is a response to the crimes that you have caused in the world and specifically in Iraq and in Afghanistan. And there will be more, God willing. This is a message from the military spokesman for al Qaeda in Europe."

Ten bombs exploded Thursday on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 200 and injuring 1,500, according to figures from Acebes.

The five arrested are linked to a prepaid telephone card found with an undetonated bomb hours after Thursday's devastating terror attack, Acebes added.

"Early this afternoon, the National Police have detained five people," Acebes told reporters in a nationally televised news conference.

"Three Moroccan citizens, two Indian citizens. There are also two other Spanish citizens of Indian origin from whom we are taking statements.

"All [were detained] for their presumed implication in the sale and falsification of the cell phone and cell phone card found in the bag which did not explode."

The backpack was found on a train after Thursday's attacks and detonated by police.

It also held the explosive ECO; metal pieces intended to multiply a bomb's destructive effect, a detonator and a mobile telephone, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported.

The news came on the eve of national elections, as thousands of demonstrators gathered at the headquarters of the ruling political party. The protesters were accusing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of covering up the investigation of the terrorist attacks.

The demonstrators accuse the Popular Party of covering up evidence linking Islamic extremists, possibly even al Qaeda, to the attacks.

Acebes initially said that authorities believed the Basque separatist group ETA was most likely to blame. Later, he said they were considering that an Islamic terrorist group was involved.

"The investigation is advancing on both tracks," Acebes said.

A banner referring to the government as liars stretched above hundreds of signs bearing the single word "Paz," Spanish for peace.

The minister also said that investigators have not ruled out collaboration between ETA and another group.

Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy addressed the crowd soon after it was announced that five people were being questioned.

Aznar, who is not seeking a third term, has chosen former Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy to succeed him.

Aznar's Popular Party is a favorite to win.

Rajoy asked citizens to stay home and avoid political rallies Saturday.

Political campaigns typically are quiet the day before Spanish elections to allow for a day of reflection.

However, the bombings brought thousands of peace demonstrators to the streets.

Meanwhile, funerals started Saturday, a day after millions of Spaniards answered the government's call for demonstrations against the violence.

Saturday morning, 266 people were still hospitalized -- 17 in critical condition and 41 more in very serious condition -- Acebes said, adding that 31 people from 12 nations were wounded.

Several Basque media outlets reported Friday that they had received phone calls from people denying responsibility for the attacks on behalf of ETA. The United States and the European Union consider ETA a terrorist group.

But Acebes said Friday that ETA, which has waged a 36-year terrorist war for a separate homeland, had to be the "main line of investigation."

"Nobody has any doubt that ETA wanted to attack before the general elections," Acebes said in a news conference before he joined 11 million Spaniards in a country-wide demonstration against terrorist violence.

Political leaders in the Basque region in the north of Spain said they feared the attacks -- and the association of ETA with them -- would give the Popular Party further advantage and that a political backlash could follow the elections.

The private Spanish radio station, Cadena SER -- which has connections to the opposition Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) -- reported Saturday that sources in the Spanish intelligence agency said they were "99 percent sure" Thursday's attacks were carried out by Islamic extremists who probably fled the country immediately afterward.

Ten bombs exploded on four trains in three stations.
There was no immediate response from the government -- but the PSOE, which has pledged to bring Spanish troops back from Iraq if they win Sunday -- would benefit if al Qaeda or another Islamic group is responsible.

Acebes pointed out that Spanish authorities last month stopped a van carrying 500 kilograms of explosives on its way to Madrid and in December thwarted a similar attack involving multiple bombs that were to go off simultaneously on the commuter train system.

Aznar, who joined other senior officials outside the presidential palace to launch the three-day period of mourning, said he had set aside $171.2 million (140 million euros) for the families of victims.

The government's response to the tragedy was overshadowed, however, by the outpouring of grief and anger in the capital by about 2.3 million people -- nearly half of its 5 million population -- on a cold, wet Friday night.

Across the country, government officials estimated one in four Spaniards -- more than 11 million in a nation of 42 million -- took part in demonstrations. One such demonstration took place in Bilbao, the largest city of Spain's Basque region.

Makeshift memorials cropped up at the three train stations, and Spanish flags across the country were adorned with black ribbons.

The Madrid bombings were the second deadliest in Europe since World War II. Only the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killed more people than Thursday's attacks. The Lockerbie bombing killed 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground.

CNN Madrid Bureau chief Al Goodman, chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, correspondents Diana Muriel, Alessio Vinci and Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report