U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice marked the one year anniversary of the Madrid train bombings that killed nearly 200 people and eventually led to the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq. "I wish to convey my most heartfelt sympathies and those of the American people as Spain commemorates the loss and devastation of so many lives in the terrorist attacks of March 11, 2004," Rice said in a statement issued during her visit to Mexico City. "Both the American and Spanish people have felt the pain and grief inflicted by terrorists, whose cowardly and heinous acts are anathema to all those who embrace freedom and tolerance," Rice said. Spanish authorities concluded al-Qaeda was behind that series of commuter train bombs that left 191 people dead and hurt up to 1,500 others. National elections took place three days later and swept Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialists into power, although it was widely expected before the attack that the party of the conservative incumbent, Jose Maria Aznar, would prevail. --More 2249 Local Time 1949 GMT
