London, Mar 18: A group that claimed responsibility for last week's bombings on trains in Madrid has called a truce with Spain, reports said. The Abu Hafs al-Masri brigades, which claims to have links to al-Qaeda, called the truce in a statement to the London-based Arabic language daily al-Hayat reported.
The group said the truce would allow time to see whether Spain's new government will withdraw troops from Iraq, the newspaper said, according to report.
The group urged its European units to stop all operations in the statement, which also said because of Spain's decision to change the government, its leadership ''has decided to stop all operations within the Spanish territories ... until we know the intentions of the new government that has promised to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq.''
The Spanish Socialist government elected in an upset on Sunday has said it would probably withdraw its troops from Iraq. The bombings killed 201 people and injured an estimated 1,500 other people.
Bureau Report