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ETA sets off car bomb in Madrid, 39 injured
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-09 19:58

MADRID - A car bomb exploded outside Madrid's main convention center on Wednesday, injuring 39 people, after a warning from the Basque separatist group ETA.

The worst blast in the Spanish capital since last year's March 11 al Qaeda train bombings came just hours before King Juan Carlos and Mexican President Vicente Fox were to open an art fair at the complex on the outskirts of the city.

Ambulances stand near the scene where a powerful car bomb exploded in Madrid, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2005. The car bomb exploded following a telephone warning from a caller claiming to represent the armed Basque separatist group ETA, injuring at least 39 people, officials said. [AP]

Thirty-nine people were hurt, none seriously, including 23 taken to hospital, an emergencies official told Reuters. Five police officers were among those treated, another official said.

The explosion, which coincided with a major police operation against ETA in northern Spain, seemed to erase any hope the group might declare a truce before Basque elections in April and could dent Madrid's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

"The terrorist band ETA is weakened. It has no political future, but it still has operational strength," Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso told a news conference.

Police said the Basque newspaper Gara had received a warning from ETA earlier in the day announcing that a car bomb would explode soon afterwards near the convention center.

"I would like to say to the terrorists of ETA and those who support them that there is no place for them in politics or civil society -- bombs lead only to prison," Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said during a visit to Warsaw.

Investigators gather evidence following a car bomb explosion near Madrid's main convention center, February 9, 2005. The blast came after a warning from the Basque separatist group ETA and injured 39 people. [Reuters]

The blast smashed windows and damaged six parked cars.

"We saw police officers running and two or three minutes later there was an explosion," a hotel employee said.

On March 11 last year, 191 people were killed in attacks on trains, days before a general election. Al Qaeda Islamist militants claimed responsibility.

OLYMPIC BLOW?

The explosion may be a blow to Madrid's ambition to host the 2012 Olympics. It proposes holding a number of events at the convention center if it beats Paris, London, New York and Moscow in an Olympic ballot on July 6 to choose the host city.

Olympic inspectors visited the center last week.

Explosives experts estimated the bomb contained between 40 pounds and 60 pounds of explosives, Alonso said.

He said the government was absolutely determined to fight ETA "and not retreat a single millimeter."

Thirteen people were arrested in the Basque country on Wednesday morning "in an important operation against the terrorist group's recruiting apparatus," he added.

ETA has killed nearly 850 people since 1968 in a bombing and shooting campaign for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France.

Spain, the United States and the European Union consider it a terrorist organization.

ETA has gradually increased the severity of its attacks since it returned to violence last summer. That followed several months of inactivity in the wake of the March 11 attacks.

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