Despite Spain’s long and bloody history of domestic terrorism, it is more than 13-years since Islamists successfully carried out an attack in the country. On March 11 2004 a suspected al Qaeda terror cell exploded bombs on several Madrid commuter trains in a series of coordinated attacks, killing 192 and injuring more than 2,000. It was Europe’s most deadly attack since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988. The attack took place 911 days after the 9/11 attacks on New York and sparked widespread fear that it marked the beginning of a new assault by Jihadists in Europe. But while its allies and neigbours, particularly in the UK, France and Germany were all subsequently hit by deadly Islamist attacks, Spain escaped any large scale outrage for 13-years - until now.

Source: The North Africa Journal August 17, 2017 19:30 UTC