The Madrid attack was a

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...

ing carried out by the armed Basque separatist group

ETA Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

on 6 February 1992, which killed 5 people and injured a further 7. The target was a military vehicle transporting members of the army. The dead included three

captains Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

, a soldier driving the vehicle and a civilian working for the armed forces. This was ETA's deadliest attack of 1992.

Background

ETA had begun intensifying attacks in the early 1990s in the run up to the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

to try to gain wider publicity for their cause.Historical Dictionary of Modern Olympic Movement
John E. Findling & Kimberly D. Pelle, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, p189 This attack was the first that they had carried out in 1992 in Madrid and came weeks after the

civil guard Civil Guard refers to various policing organisations: Current * Civil Guard (Spain), Spanish gendarmerie * Civil Guard (Israel), Israeli volunteer police reserve * Civil Guard (Brazil), Municipal law enforcement corporations in Brazil Histori ...

and Basque police had infiltrated an extortion ring set up to fund ETA.La Vanguardia
7 February 1992, p6

The attack

The vehicle used in the attack, an

Opel Kadett The Opel Kadett is a small family car produced by the German automobile manufacturer Opel from 1936 until 1940 and then from 1962 until 1991 (the Cabrio continued until 1993), when it was succeeded by the Opel Astra. Kadett I (1936–1940) ...

, had been stolen at gunpoint in September 1991 in the Basque town of

Zarautz Zarautz (, es, Zarauz) is a coastal town located in central Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, in Spain. It is bordered by Aia to the east and the south and Getaria to the west, located about west of San Sebastián. It has four enclaves limiting the afo ...

. It was then hidden and had its number plates changed. On the day of the attack, the car was loaded with between 40 and 50 kilos of explosives and a variety of screws, bolts, and nails. It was parked only minutes before the explosion in Plaza de la Cruz Verde, just 200 metres from the General captaincy, the headquarters of the army in Madrid.La Vanguardia
7 February 1992, p1 ETA detonated the bomb remotely when the military vehicle passed. The bomb killed all those in the vehicle, injured seven passersby and caused extensive damage to nearby buildings.

Reactions

The attack took the number of people killed by ETA in 1992 to ten. Spanish Prime Minister

Felipe Gonzalez Felipe is the Spanish variant of the name Philip, which derives from the Greek adjective ''Philippos'' "friend of horses". Felipe is also widely used in Portuguese-speaking Brazil alongside Filipe, the form commonly used in Portugal. Noteworthy pe ...

expressed anger at the attack, reiterating that it would not lead to the government changing its stance. He called for judicial action against those responsible for such attacks, such as Herri Batasuna, the political wing of ETA. The leader of the opposition,

José María Aznar José María Alfredo Aznar López (; born 25 February 1953) is a Spanish politician who was the prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He led the People's Party (PP), the dominant centre-right political party in Spain. A member of the Fre ...

, called for a decision to be made on whether Batasuna should remain legal as a political party. The

King of Spain , coatofarms = File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Spanish_Monarch.svg , coatofarms_article = Coat of arms of the King of Spain , image = Felipe_VI_in_2020_(cropped).jpg , incumbent = Felipe VI , incumbentsince = 19 Ju ...

, Juan Carlos, sent a telegram of condolence to the families of those killed. In the

Basque Country Basque Country may refer to: * Basque Country (autonomous community), as used in Spain ( es, País Vasco, link=no), also called , an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain (shown in pink on the map) * French Basque Country o ...

Basque President The President of the Basque Government ( eu, Eusko Jaurlaritzako lehendakaria, es, presidente del Gobierno Vasco), usually known in the Basque language as the Lehendakari ( eu, lehendakari, es, lendakari), is the head of government of the Basq ...

José Antonio Ardanza Garro condemned the attack, stating that such attacks were ultimately "suicidal" for ETA.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Madrid attack ETA (separatist group) actions Mass murder in 1992 Car and truck bombings in Spain 1990s in Madrid 1992 murders in Spain Terrorist incidents in Spain in 1992 Improvised explosive device bombings in Madrid 20th-century mass murder in Spain February 1992 crimes February 1992 events in Europe Car and truck bombings in the 1990s Improvised explosive device bombings in 1992