The Spanish government called for calm as troops and police patrolled potential targets after a series of bombings and a purported al-Qaeda threat to create rivers of blood in Spain.
Frontpage newspaper pictures yesterday showed combat troops guarding a dam, adding to the feeling of a country under siege.
Police were deployed on Madrid's metro on Monday, a job normally left to private guards, and troops were dotted along the route of the high-speed Madrid-Seville rail line that was the target of a foiled bomb attack last week.
Spain has ramped up security since 191 people were killed when suspected Islamic militants bombed four commuter trains in Madrid on March 11.
Up to six of the suspected train bombers blew themselves up on Saturday during a police siege in a suburb of the city, killing one police officer.
The government says they had been planning further attacks.
Police, who returned to the site yesterday to continue the search for clues and remains, say a handful of accomplices remain at large.
"There could have been a series of Holy Week bombings, probably starting this weekend," a source close to the investigation said, adding that police were unsure how much of an arsenal remained in the fugitives' hands.
Interior Minister Angel Acebes tried to reassure people.
"We must all maintain the greatest calm and allow the security forces to act," Acebes said on state radio on Monday, adding there had been "quite a few false alarms" during the day. "All possible measures have been taken in places considered especially sensitive. There is a big deployment of security forces, including Civil Guard, national police and the army."
Investigators are analyzing a letter purportedly from the militant al-Qaeda network to ABC newspaper threatening more bombs unless Spain withdraws troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"If our demands are not satisfied, we declare war and we swear by Almighty God that we will turn your country into an inferno and we will make blood flow like rivers," the letter said, according to an ABC Spanish translation.
The Interior Ministry said it gave some credence to the letter, and ABC said yesterday that police were comparing it with documents found in the apartment raided on Saturday to compare handwriting.
El Mundo said police had found two machineguns in the apartment of the same type as those carried by militants in a video claiming responsibility for the train attacks.
Spanish authorities announced another arrest in the Madrid train bombings on Monday. Sixteen people are now in custody.
The militants who blew themselves up as police surrounded their apartment in the suburb of Leganes included at least three named on international arrest warrants for the March 11 attacks.
El Mundo newspaper said one of them, dubbed "El Tunecino" (The Tunisian), had been reported to police by his landlord on March 8 after he disappeared without paying his rent.
"The police told me they couldn't do anything, his papers were in order," it quoted the landlord as saying.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
FILLING A VOID: The nontraditional structures could offer an alternative for single women worried about aging alone, Lilith Jiang said at ‘Half the Sky’ Laughter erupts over a board game and coffee at a rural cottage in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang, one of a growing number of women-only coliving spaces far from social pressures and male judgement. Women come to share mutual support and “talk freely about intimate stuff,” while others seek companionship or refuge from harassment, participants said after making steamed buns in a bright kitchen overlooking the mountains. “An all-women environment makes me feel safe,” Zhang Wenjing, 43, said. “Among women, we talk more easily about certain things.” Chen Fangyan, 28, said she felt less self-conscious without men around. “Not being forced to wear a
RSS