Terrorism in Spain has been committed by various groups and people.
There have been several phases of terrorism in Spain.
Spain was notably affected by a broader wave of anarchist terrorism that started in the late 19th century in Europe in connection to the notion ofpropaganda of the deed. Several of the perpetrators acting in Spain, such asMichele Angiolillo, Thioulouze, Tomás Ascheri or Girault, were actually foreign. Some of the terrorist attacks in this period include the1893 Liceo bomb, the1896 Corpus Christi bomb, or themagnicide of Cánovas del Castillo in 1897.[1] The botched assassination in Madrid of King Alfonso XIII at theCalle Mayor during his wedding left 33 casualties and many wounded.[2] Barcelona became infamous as fertile ground for bomb attacks in the early 20th century.[3] Bomb attacks started to fade within anarchism at the turn of the first decade of the century, giving way to new forms of political violence at a time when anarcho-syndicalism became more disciplined and acquired more features of a mass movement along the decade,[4] with the practice ofpistolerismo appearing in the conflict between employers and trade unions. Magnicides in the early 20th century linked to anarcho-syndicalist terrorism such as individual assassination of two Prime Ministers (Canalejas in 1912 andDato in 1921), as well as the Archbishop of Zaragoza,Juan Soldevila, in 1923, happened at a time of escalation of violence during the decadence of the Restoration regime.[5]
From 1961 to 2011, theBasque separatist groupETA carried out more than 3,300attacks[6] with total deaths estimated to be 829 to 952.[7] During a similar period,[citation needed]far right terrorist groups were active, opposed to theSpanish transition to democracy. They caused from 66 to 95 deaths.[8][9][10]
In recent years,Al-Qaeda and thenIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant have been responsible for significant attacks in the country. This includes the single deadliest peacetime incident, the2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 192 people.
Jihadists were present in Spain from 1994, when an al-Qaeda cell was established.[11] In 1996, theArmed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA), an organisation affiliated with al-Qaeda, founded a cell in the province ofValencia.[12] In the 1995–2003 period, slightly over 100 people were arrested for offences related to militantsalafism, an average of 12 per year.[11]
In 2004, Madrid commuters suffered the2004 Madrid train bombings, which were perpetrated by remnants of the first al-Qaeda cell, members of theMoroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM) plus a gang of criminals turned into jihadists.[11]
In the period 2004–2012, there were 470 arrests, an average of 52 per year and four times the pre-Madrid bombings average which indicated that the jihadist threat persisted after the Madrid attack. In the years after the Madrid attack, 90% of all jihadists convicted in Spain were foreigners, mainly fromMorocco,Pakistan and Algeria, while 7 out of 10 resided in the metropolitan areas of Madrid or Barcelona. The vast majority were involved in cells linked to organisations such as al-Qaeda, theGICM, the Algerian Salafist groupGroup for Preaching and Combat which had replaced the GIA, andTehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.[11]
In the period 2013, jihadism in Spain transformed to be less overwhelmingly associated with foreigners. Arrests 2013–2017 show that 4 out of 10 arrested were Spanish nationals and 3 out of 10 were born in Spain. Most others had Morocco as a country of nationality or birth with its main focus among Moroccan descendants residing in the North African cities ofCeuta andMelilla. The most prominent jihadist presence was the province of Barcelona.[11] In 2013 and 2014 there were cells associated withAl-Nusra Front, theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant.[11]
In 2017, a terrorist cell based in the province of Barcelona carried out the vehicle-ramming2017 Barcelona attacks, even if their original plans were on a larger scale.[11]
The 2023Algeciras church attacks were treated asIslamic terrorism by theAudiencia Nacional.[13]
The following is a list of terrorist incidents in Spain that resulted in at least ten deaths. It lists attacks on civilians bynon-state actors that are widely referred to as terrorism. It excludes the periods of the Red and White Terrors during and after theCivil War.
| Date | Incident | Casualties | Perpetrator |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 7, 1893 | Gran Teatre del Liceu bombing | 20+ killed, 40+ injured[14] | Santiago Salvador Franch |
| June 7, 1896 | Barcelona Corpus Christi procession bombing | 12 killed, 44 injured[14] | Anarchists (suspected) |
| May 31, 1906 | Botched assassination of Alfonso XIII | 30 killed, 100 injured[15] | Mateo Morral Rocca |
| September 13, 1974 | Cafetería Rolando bombing | 13 killed, 71 injured[16] | ETA |
| April 12, 1985 | El Descanso bombing | 18 killed, 82 injured[17][18] | Mustafa Setmariam (suspect) |
| July 14, 1986 | Plaza República Dominicana bombing | 12 killed, 32 injured[19] | ETA |
| June 19, 1987 | Hipercor bombing | 21 killed, 45 injured[20] | ETA |
| December 11, 1987 | Zaragoza barracks bombing | 11 killed, 88 injured[21] | ETA |
| May 29, 1991 | Vic bombing | 10 killed, 44 injured[22][23] | ETA |
| March 11, 2004 | Madrid train bombings | 192 killed, 2,050 injured[24][25] | Al-Qaeda (suspected) |
| August 17–18, 2017 | 2017 Barcelona attacks | 24 killed(inc. 8 perps.), 152 injured[26][27] | Islamic State (suspected) |