Daily Times

MADRID: Despite its long experience in fighting terrorism, Spain failed this past week to prevent two deadly attacks in Catalonia — a key tourist magnet but also the Spanish region most vulnerable to such assaults, analysts say.

In attacks claimed by the Islamic State group, suspected jihadists killed 14 people and left 120 wounded, using vehicles to mow down pedestrians in Barcelona on Thursday and in the nearby seaside resort of Cambrils early Friday.

Spain has five decades of experience of fighting against the Basque separatist group ETA, which killed over 800 people until it declared a ceasefire in 2011.

But it was jolted to another dimension of terrorism in 2004 when it suffered Europe’s deadliest Islamist attack to date.

During the morning rush hour of March 11 of that year, bombs packed with nails exploded on four commuter trains heading into Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring nearly 2,000. In the aftermath of the carnage, Madrid overhauled its security forces. It bolstered its police and intelligence services with new hires, recruited translators and reinforced its cooperation with neighbouring France and Morocco, said Mikel Buesa, a terrorism expert at Complutense University in Madrid.

Published in Daily Times, August 21^1st 2017.