Staff reporter/Valentina Buendía
On March 11, 2004, an extreme Islamist militant group exploded bombs on several train stations in Madrid. 17 years later, these attacks are still happening. On August 26, 2021, two suicide bombers and shooters attacked Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport killing many.
In 2004, multiple bombs were detonated by mobile phones killing 193 people and injuring 2000. These attacks were the deadliest since the 1988 Lockerbie airplane bombing in Europe.
Many people around the world saw this as retaliation for Spain’s participation in the war in Iraq. The attacks took place two days before a major Spanish election, in which anti-war Socialists swept to power.
Many people around the world saw this as revenge for the involvement of Spain in the Iraq war. The attacks took place two days before a big Spanish election, in which the pacifist socialists came to power.
Seventeen years later, a similar incident happened in the airport of Kabul.
The U.S. Embassy warned that there was going to be a major attack, but that advice was ignored by Afghans who were desperate to escape the country before the U.S. officially ended its 20-year presence on August 31.
The Taliban have fought against Islamic State (IS) militants in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have taken back control 20 years after they were forced out in an invasion led by the U.S., who joined after the 9/11 attacks.
The first explosion was said to be outside the Abbey gate and the second one was near Baron Hotel.
13 service members including 11 Marines died, 8 were wounded and more than 140 Afghans were injured. An Italian charity said they received at least 60 patients wounded and 10 who were dead when they arrived.
The IS group claimed responsibility for the killings on its Amaq news channel and the Taliban were not believed to have been involved in the attacks
Joe Biden, President of the U.S. gave a speech about the situation and said that this would not drive the U.S. out of Afghanistan earlier than scheduled and that he had instructed the U.S. military to develop plans to strike IS. “We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said.
The Sunni extremists of IS have carried out multiple attacks targeting Afghanistan’s Shiite Muslim minority, which include a 2020 assault on a maternity hospital in Kabul in which women and infants were killed.
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