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Terrorism in Spain

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Terrorism in Spainhas been committed by various groups and people.

History

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There have been several phases of terrorism in Spain.

Spain was notably affected by a broader wave of anarchist terrorism that started in the late 19th century in Europe in connection to the notion ofpropaganda of the deed.Several of the perpetrators acting in Spain, such asMichele Angiolillo,Thioulouze, Tomás Ascheri or Girault, were actually foreign. Some of the terrorist attacks in this period include the1893 Liceo bomb,the1896 Corpus Christi bomb,or themagnicide of Cánovas del Castilloin 1897.[1]The botched assassination in Madrid of King Alfonso XIII at theCalle Mayorduring his wedding left 33 casualties and many wounded.[2]Barcelona became infamous as fertile ground for bomb attacks in the early 20th century.[3]Bomb attacks started to fade within anarchism at the turn of the first decade of the century, giving place to new forms of political violence at a time anarcho-syndicalism became more disciplined and acquired more features of a mass movement along the decade,[4]with the practice ofpistolerismoappearing in the conflict between employers and trade unions. Magnicides in the early 20th century linked to anarcho-syndicalist terrorism such as individual assassination of two Prime Ministers (Canalejasin 1912 andDatoin 1921), as well as the Archbishop of Zaragoza,Juan Soldevilla,in 1923, happened at a time of escalation of violence during the decadence of the Restoration regime.[5]

From 1961 to 2011, theBasqueseparatist groupETAcarried out more than 3,300attacks[6]with total deaths estimated to be 829 to 952.[7]During a similar period,[citation needed]far right terrorist groupswere active, opposed to theSpanish transition to democracy.They caused from 66 to 95 deaths.[8][9][10]

In recent years,Al-Qaedaand thenIslamic State of Iraq and the Levanthave been responsible for significant attacks in the country. This includes the single deadliest peacetime incident, the2004 Madrid train bombingsthat killed 192 people.

Islamic terrorism

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Main articles:Islamic terrorismandIslamic terrorism in Europe

Jihadists were present in Spain from 1994, when an al-Qaeda cell was established.[11]In 1996, theArmed Islamic Group of Algeria(GIA), an organisation affiliated with al-Qaeda, founded a cell in the province ofValencia.[12]In the 1995–2003 period, slightly over 100 people were arrested for offences related to militantsalafism,an average of 12 per year.[11]

In 2004, Madrid commuters suffered the2004 Madrid train bombings,which were perpetrated by remnants of the first al-Qaeda cell, members of theMoroccan Islamic Combatant Group(GICM) plus a gang of criminals turned into jihadists.[11]

In the period 2004–2012, there were 470 arrests, an average of 52 per year and four times the pre-Madrid bombings average which indicated that the jihadist threat persisted after the Madrid attack. In the years after the Madrid attack, 90% of all jihadists convicted in Spain were foreigners, mainly fromMorocco,Pakistanand Algeria, while 7 out of 10 resided in the metropolitan areas of Madrid or Barcelona. The vast majority were involved in cells linked to organisations such as al-Qaeda, theGICM,the Algerian Salafist groupGroup for Preaching and Combatwhich had replaced the GIA, andTehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.[11]

In the period 2013, jihadism in Spain transformed to be less overwhelmingly associated with foreigners. Arrests 2013–2017 show that 4 out of 10 arrested were Spanish nationals and 3 out of 10 were born in Spain. Most others had Morocco as a country of nationality or birth with its main focus among Moroccan descendants residing in the North African cities ofCeutaandMelilla.The most prominent jihadist presence was the province of Barcelona.[11]In 2013 and 2014 there were cells associated withAl-Nusra Front,theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant.[11]

In 2017, a terrorist cell based in the province of Barcelona carried out the vehicle-ramming2017 Barcelona attacks,even if their original plans were on a larger scale.[11]

The 2023,Algeciras church attackswas treated asIslamic terrorismby theAudiencia Nacional.[13]

Deadliest attacks

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The following is a list of terrorist incidents in Spain that resulted in at least ten deaths. It lists attacks on civilians bynon-state actorsthat are widely referred to as terrorism. It excludes the periods of the Red and White Terrors during and after theCivil War.

Key: Group

ETA Jihadist Anarchist Other

Date Incident Casualties Perpetrator
November 7, 1893 Gran Teatre del Liceu bombing 20+ killed, 40+ injured[14] Santiago Salvador Franch
June 7, 1896 Barcelona Corpus Christi procession bombing 12 killed, 44 injured[14] Anarchists(suspected)
May 31, 1906 Botched assassination of Alfonso XIII 30 killed, 100 injured[15] Mateo Morral Rocca
September 13, 1974 Cafetería Rolando bombing 13 killed, 71 injured[16] ETA
April 12, 1985 El Descanso bombing 18 killed, 82 injured[17][18] Mustafa Setmariam(suspect)
July 14, 1986 Plaza República Dominicana bombing 12 killed, 32 injured[19] ETA
June 19, 1987 Hipercor bombing 21 killed, 45 injured[20] ETA
December 11, 1987 Zaragoza barracks bombing 11 killed, 88 injured[21] ETA
May 29, 1991 Vic bombing 10 killed, 44 injured[22][23] ETA
March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings 192 killed, 2,050 injured[24][25] Al-Qaeda(suspected)
August 17–18, 2017 2017 Barcelona attacks 24 killed(inc. 8 perps.),152 injured[26][27] Islamic State(suspected)

See also

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References

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  1. ^Casanova, Julián(2005). "Terror and Violence: The Dark Face of Spanish Anarchism".International Labor and Working-Class History.67(67): 82.doi:10.1017/s0147547905000098.S2CID146303092.
  2. ^Casanova 2005,p. 85.
  3. ^Casanova 2005,p. 84.
  4. ^Casanova 2005,pp. 86–87.
  5. ^Calvo Prat, David Manuel (2019)."Francisco Ascaso y Los Solidarios: una acción continuada".Aportes.XXXIV(99): 151–192.ISSN0213-5868.
  6. ^"Datos significativos del conflicto vasco, 1968-2003".Eusko News(in Spanish).Retrieved19 September2010.
  7. ^Núñez, Javier (21 February 2010)."Verdad eclipsada ('Eclipsed truth')"(in Spanish). Deia. Archived fromthe originalon 2 January 2013.Retrieved23 October2011.
  8. ^Transición y represión política.Juan Manuel Olarieta Alberdi,Revista de Estudios Políticos,ISSN 0048-7694, Nº 70, 1990, pp. 225–262
  9. ^Aizpeolea, Luis R. (21 March 2010)."Reportaje - Las otras víctimas".El País.Retrieved25 August2017.
  10. ^Las otras víctimas de una transición nada pacífica.Gonzalo Wilhelmi. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
  11. ^abcdefgVidino; et al. (2018).DE-RADICALIZATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN – Comparing Challenges and Approaches(PDF).Milano: ISPI. pp. 24, 35–37.ISBN9788867058198.
  12. ^Checa, A.; Rallo, A. (29 April 2007)."La célula de Al Qaida que atentó en Casablanca se gestó en Valencia".Las Provincias(in Spanish).Vocento.Retrieved10 April2019.
  13. ^Ortega Dolz, Patricia; López Fonseca, Óscar; Canas, Jesús A. (25 January 2023)."Un hombre mata a un sacristán y deja al menos cuatro heridos en un ataque con arma blanca en dos iglesias de Algeciras"[A man kills a sexton and leaves at least four wounded in a blade attack in two churches in Algeciras].El País(in Spanish).Retrieved27 January2023.
  14. ^ab"Terrorism in Barcelona and Its Impact on Spanish Politics 1904-1909", by J. Romero Maura,Past & Present1968,41:130-183
  15. ^Chaliand, Gérard; Blin, Arnaud (August 2007).The History of Terrorism: From Antiquity to Al Qaeda.University of California Press.ISBN9780520247093.
  16. ^Ediciones El País (26 May 1979)."Atentado de la calle del Correo: un caso similar todavía no aclarado, El Pais, 27 May 1979".EL PAÍS.Retrieved14 January2017.
  17. ^Aizpeolea, Luis R. (18 April 2010)."El atentado terrorista más olvidado".El País.
  18. ^"Al-Qaeda suspect linked to 1985 Madrid bombing".Retrieved14 January2017.
  19. ^25 años del atentado de la plaza de la República Dominicana,El Diario Montanes, 14 January 2017
  20. ^"Bomb explodes in Barcelona".Los Angeles Times.19 June 1987.Retrieved14 January2017.
  21. ^El País:Zaragoza: cinco ataúdes blancos2 August 2009accessed 14 January 2017
  22. ^"Timeline: Major ETA Attacks in Spain".Associated Press.25 March 2015.Retrieved25 May2019.
  23. ^elEconomista.es (13 June 2009)."Vic (Barcelona) recordará hoy a las víctimas del atentado de ETA en su casa cuartel - EcoDiario.es".ecodiario.eleconomista.es(in Spanish).Retrieved25 May2019.
  24. ^"elmundo.es. Documento: Auto del 11-M".
  25. ^ZoomNews (in spanish)Archived2015-03-15 at theWayback Machine.The 192nd victim (Laura Vega) died in 2014, after a decade in coma in a hospital of Madrid. She was the last hospitalized injured person.
  26. ^"Barcelona attack: Suspected van driver shot dead by police".BBC. 21 August 2017.Retrieved21 August2017.
  27. ^Burgen, Stephen (27 August 2017)."Spanish attacks death toll rises to 16 after woman dies in hospital".The Guardian.Retrieved30 August2017.
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