World Notes Spain

The El Descanso Barbeque restaurant, a popular eating place outside Madrid and only five miles from the U.S. air base at Torrejon, was packed with about 300 people last Friday night. Suddenly, an explosion tore through the building. At least 18 people died and 82 were injured. The blast may have been a terrorist attack aimed at U.S. military personnel who regularly eat at the restaurant. No Americans were killed, but eleven were injured. Two newspapers later received telephone calls claiming that ETA, the Basque separatist group, was responsible. Calls to Madrid radio stations claimed that an urban terrorist group called GRAPO had bombed the restaurant. Although officials said there was no evidence that these groups were involved, they said they were "working on the theory that it could be a terrorist bomb."

Madrid police were not discounting the possibility that the blast was the work of a group opposed to U.S. or North Atlantic Treaty Organization policies. Such groups have threatened to stage a demonstration to urge the Spanish government to cancel President Reagan's planned visit to Spain next month.