Terrorists, who blew up three train stations in Madrid, Spain, early yesterday, mere days before Sunday's scheduled General Election killing close to 200 persons and injuring more than 1,000 is another manifestation of the horror of the times in which we live. By mid-afternoon al Qaeda had claimed responsibility, a development that could mean that Spain is being made to pay for its involvement in the US invasion of Iraq. Within mere hours of the blasts, however, Spanish investigators had linked the explosions to the ETA, a fanatical breakaway group of the Basque separatist movement which, over the years has employed terrorism as a strategy to force the setting up of a separate Basque state. The investigsators said there were crucial similarities between the material used in 500 kilos of explosives belonging to the ETA, which had been seized at the end of February and material from the explosives used in yesterday's terrorist acts.

Spain's Prime Minister has called for three days of mourning and promised that the "terrorists will face the rule of law," as his country sought to come to terms with what he called a "mass murder." World leaders were swift in their condemnation, terming it massacre. Whether al Qaeda or ETA, it was a dreadful moment of pain for Spain. It was unclear what the terrorists hoped to gain by the blasts which were timed for the height of commuter traffic. It could not have been a tactical advantage in the runup to Sunday's elections. If it was ETA the horror and gravity were certain to alienate not only whatever little international sympathy the separatists may have had, but even moderates in the Basque movement. The grim pictures relayed on Spanish, European, North American and other television stations worldwide throughout the day of the dead being removed and the wounded taken by ambulances from the different train stations provoked sympathy for the victims, their families and the country trying to come to terms with the tragedy.

Some commentators described it as the worst terrorist act in Europe since the Lockerbie disaster of 1988, when scores on board an airliner, which had exploded off Scotland, were killed. Libya, then identified with promoting international terrorism, recently accepted legal responsibility and has agreed to pay out billions of dollars in compensation to affected families. It is easy to see why the brutal, senseless acts, in which explosives were detonated at ten points in the three train stations, were immediately blamed by Spanish officials on Basque separatists, who have often employed terrorist tactics in their more than four decades demand for an independent State. But Basque leaders, who normally send advance warnings of impending attacks, and had not done so yesterday, were quick to deny responsibility.

Even as Spanish authorities were pointing out similarities in tactics employed by the ETA extremists and in the materials used in February and yesterday, persons asserting that they belonged to the Basque Movement were both quick to condemn the action and disassociate mainstream Basques from the outrageous and cowardly attacks, on innocent civilians. ETA has usually concentrated on military targets, but the cowardly killing and maiming of scores of civilians whose only mistake was that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time were barbaric. In the process the extremists, whether ETA or al Qaeda have shocked and disgusted the world.