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Who could have been responsible for the bomb blasts at�three�Madrid railway stations which have killed over 190 innocent�civilians?

ETA, the Basque separatist organisation, or the�International Islamic Front�formed by Osama bin Laden in 1998�and presently co-ordinated by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba�of Pakistan?�The Lashkar�has�sleeper cells in the UK, which could operate anywhere�in Europe.��

The timing of the blasts just before the general election in Spain points�the needle of suspicion at ETA, which had used improvised explosive�devices effectively in the past and had not hesitated to target�innocent civilians -- for example, in the June 1987 attack at�a�Barcelona supermarket which killed�21 shoppers.

It has been�reported that while openly blaming the ETA for the Madrid�explosions, the Spanish authorities have not ruled out the possibility�of this being a reprisal attack by jihadi terrorist elements for�the Spanish government's support�to the US and� UK for their�invasion and occupation of Iraq and for sending Spanish troops to�Iraq, which were the target of attacks by International Islamic Front elements�last�year, resulting in fatal casualties.

ETA itself has not so far claimed responsibility for the blasts.�While it is a ruthless organisation,�it had not come to notice�for such co-ordinated attacks, which must have involved the use of�large quantities of explosives, more than the ETA was known to�have access to.

Madrid has a large number of immigrants of Moroccan origin,�many of them sympathetic to�bin Laden and�Al Qaeda. Moroccan components of Al Qaeda and the International Islamic Front�participated in some�terrorist strikes, the last of them in Casablanca in Morocco�last year. Apart from Spain's role in Iraq,�its close co-operation with the US in the hunt for�Al Qaeda agents has also earned it the wrath of Al Qaeda�and the International Islamic Front.

Other countries too�have been targeted by�bin Laden -- the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Australia and�West Asian countries co-operating with the US.�Why should they choose�Spain at the present moment?

Most probably because there were gaps in physical security there�and any terrorist would be tempted to�take advantage of such gaps.

These are still speculative theories at present. One has to await�concrete evidence before coming to a definitive conclusion.�

Photograph: Pierre Philippe Marcou/AFP/Getty Images

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