Agencies

Madrid, March 12:

Early editions of Spain’s newspapers today voiced outrage and fury at the devastating bomb blasts in Madrid a day earlier and stressed the possibility that Spain’s worst extremist attack could have been the work of Islamic extremists, rather than Basque separatists, even as Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said today that all lines of investigation remain open in the Madrid railway terror probe.

“No line of investigation is going to be ruled out,” Aznar said after a Cabinet meeting. He insisted the probe “will soon bear fruit.”

Many papers accompanied their reports with explicit, gory pictures of the carnage caused when 13 bombs ripped through packed commuter trains during yesterday’s morning rush hour, killing nearly 200 people and injuring around 1,400.

Centre-left daily El Pais stressed that the interior ministry was investigating the possibility

that Al Qaeda may have been behind the atrocity, while not ruling out armed Basque separatist group ETA.

The government had immediately blamed ETA after the blasts and state television TVE continued to do so unconditionally this morning. Outlawed Basque separatist party Batasuna, seen as ETA’s political wing, yesterday denied any involvement by the armed group and the region’s political parties roundly condemned the attacks. El Pais said Madrid was in the grips of a “terrorist hell” and right-wing daily El Mundo said yesterday had been “a day of infamy”.

El Mundo pointed out that the authorities had discovered a stolen van containing detonators and an audio tape with verses from the Koran “after ‘unconditionally’ accusing ETA”.

It added that a London-based Arabic newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, had reported receiving a statement from Al Qaeda claiming responsibility for the attacks — the worst in Europe since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people.

Conservative daily ABC said the right-wing government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, which is hoping for victory in a general election at the weekend, had not ruled out other possibilities but was blaming ETA for the atrocity.

The attack immediately cast a pall over Sunday’s general elections, with political parties declaring that campaigning would come to an abrupt halt as the country mourned.

“The campaign is over,’’ said Mariano Rajoy, who succeeds prime minister Aznar as candidate for the ruling rightwing People’s party. Sunday’s vote will be carried out with the country in a state of profound shock, mourning and anger for the huge loss of life. It was unclear how the attack might sway voters, but it seemed likely to play towards the ruling People’s party, which has made the fight against ETA one of its main concerns over the past eight years.

The People’s party was already around four points ahead of the opposition Socialists in polls last weekend, but looked set to lose its absolute majority, which would force Rajoy to seek allies in small regional parties.