breaking: al Qaeda claims responsibility

DUBAI (Reuters) - A letter purporting to come from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network claimed responsibility for the train bombings in Spain on Thursday, calling them strikes against “crusaders,” a London-based Arabic newspaper said.

“We have succeeded in infiltrating the heart of crusader Europe and struck one of the bases of the crusader alliance,” said the letter which called the attacks “Operation Death Trains.” There was no way of authenticating the letter, a copy of which was faxed to Reuters' office in Dubai by the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper.

The letter bore the signature “Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades.” The newspaper received similar letters from the same brigade claiming responsibility on behalf of al Qaeda for a November bombing of two synagogues in Turkey and the August bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

This is not conclusive proof that Muslim extremists are behind today's attacks. Basque terrorist group ETA remains a prime suspect. ETA has however denied responsibility, and these attacks differ significantly from their usual pattern.

Another, even grimmer, possibility:

Mansoor Ijaz, a foreign-affairs analyst for Fox News, said the attacks had many of the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda operation. He said it was evidence the pan-Islamic terror organization may be “joining hands with local terrorists.”

“This represents a dangerous mutated version of what Al Qaeda has been doing in other parts of the world,” Ijaz explained, “hitting three simultaneous targets, not necessarily in the same city but in the same area, with multiple explosions at each location.” [Emphasis added]

The death toll currently stands at 190, with over 1200 wounded.

Americans have long had a tendency to regard stories like this as “over there,” not our responsibility. But Spain—like Australia, which suffered its own 9/11 in the Bali bombing of 2002—has been a steadfast ally. We owe them our thanks, and more.

This war is not over. No amount of pretending otherwise will change that.

UPDATE. Glenn Reynolds has the contact information for the Spanish Embassy in DC, for those who want to express condolences.

Then there's this, from The Australian:

No British paper was willing to speculate too heavily about which group might be behind the co-ordinated blasts which tore through commuter trains in the Spanish capital yesterday.

The United Nations Security Council voted late yesterday to blame Basque militants from the ETA group for the attacks.

Say what?

So much for the UN regard for due process—or for that matter, even the pretense of investigation. One might conclude that said august body is willing to do anything to overlook the fact that Muslim fascists have declared war on, oh, everyone else. (Via Tim Blair.)

UPDATE 2. Before I let my fingers outrun my brain, Blair does point out that the al Qaeda splinter claiming responsibility isn't entirely credible (they also claimed credit for last summer's Northeast blackout, for instance). Both EurSoc and Iberian Notes—notable Eurobloggers all—are at this point convinced that the murderers are indeed ETA.