Fox News Alert: Operation Mountain Storm has just begun.
The spring offensive, the hunt is on for OBL and the Tallybunch.
Incorrect JP.
Posted Mon, 01 Mar 2004
Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said on Sunday that police had averted a bomb attack in Madrid that Basque extremists had planned to carry out over the next few days, as the country's March 14 general election campaign entered its final stretch.
"A terrorist attack, a tragedy with very serious consequences, has been avoided," Acebes told a press conference.
The police had earlier said two suspected members of the Basque armed separatist group ETA had been arrested as they headed for the capital in a pick-up truck carrying explosives.
"We believe they were on their way to carry out an attack in Madrid during the general election campaign," an officer said.
The interior minister said the truck intercepted by police had been carrying 500 kilograms of explosives and 30 kilograms of dynamite near Cuenca, 170 kilometres east of the capital, to be used within the next few days in Madrid.
The identity of the two suspects was not given.
Truck primed to target Madrid
"(The truck was) primed to target Madrid, imminently, within the coming days," Acebes told reporters.
The outlawed ETA movement has for 35 years been waging an armed struggle for an independent Basque homeland comprising parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. The government has blamed it for the deaths of 816 people over that time.
On February 18 ETA announced a ceasefire limited to the northeastern region of Catalonia, several days after a senior left-wing member of the Catalan government held a meeting with ETA representatives.
Both sides acknowledged the meeting while denying any agreement on ending ETA attacks had been reached.
But four days later ETA announced in pro-independence Basque newspaper Gara that the armed struggle was "crucial for the process of liberation" and would only end when the "rights of the Basque country are recognised".
The group's previous ceasefire lasted for 14 months over 1998 and 1999 and covered the whole of Spain.
Incidents involving terrorist attacks (pan-Europe)
Madrid, Spain
Alledgely Al Queda - 21 April 02 Madrid, Spain A bomb explodes in northern Madrid resulting in considerable material damage.
06 May 02 various European cities Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Le Journal du Dimanche report that intelligence was acquired by BKA, the German intelligence agency, which shows that 30 members of al-Qaeda were preparing strikes in France, Great Britain and Germany in which a large number of people would be taken hostage in each country
Click on above link to see other attacks
Note the bomb threats on the French railroads and then they get Spain instead. Quite a misdirection.