Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Spain's National Court opened the trial of the men accused of carrying out the Madrid train bombing that killed 191 people, the most lethal terror attack carried out on European soil.

The 29 men, mostly Moroccan nationals, face up to 192 counts of murder and more than 1,800 counts of attempted murder in the bombing on March 11, 2004. The attackers were inspired by al-Qaeda's call to punish the government for supporting the Iraq war, prosecutors have said. Nine of the accused are Spaniards.

The Madrid trial will shed light on the government's handling of the attack and feed antipathy between the country's two main parties. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialists won a surprise election victory over the People's Party three days after the bombing that then Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar tried to blame on Basque terror group ETA.

``The whole ghastly attack will be gone over with a fine toothcomb,'' Paul Wilkinson, chair of the Centre for the Study of Political Violence at St. Andrew's University in the U.K. ``There will be renewed debate about the reaction of the government of the time.''

Spain and Iraq

The bombing followed Aznar's decision to back the U.S.-led war in Iraq in defiance of Spanish public opinion. He was photographed alongside President George Bush and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair at a conference in the Azores ahead of the invasion. The U.K. was also attacked by Islamists in July 2005.

The first to testify today was Rabei Osman el Sayed, 35, who helped plan the attack starting in 2003 and used his contacts in Madrid's main Mosque to recruit others for the bombing, documents prepared by the prosecutors say.

``I don't know any of the accusations, or any complaints and with all respect, Mr. Chairman and judges, I'm not going to reply to any question including those of my defense lawyer,'' Osman said.

He tried twice to give an explanation of his decision and Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez twice cut him off citing court procedures.

``I was prepared to be a martyr but certain circumstances prevented me,'' Osman told an associate after the attack, state prosecutor, Olga Sanchez, said.

Election Surprise

The attackers timed the attack to try to influence the outcome of the March 2004 election and punish the Aznar government, one of the staunchest supporters in Europe for the U.S.-led war in Iraq, prosecutors said. Zapatero trailed in opinion polls prior to the bombing. Soon after coming to power, Zapatero made good on his campaign pledge to pull Spanish peace keeping troops out of Iraq, one of the first nations to abandon Bush's ``coalition of the willing.''

``It may be possible to force Spain's withdrawal by dealing painful blows to their troops,'' an al-Qaeda document uncovered in December 2003 and cited in prosecution papers said. ``It is essential to take full advantage of the upcoming elections.''

The Madrid attackers detonated 12 bombs in four separate commuter trains around 7:40 a.m. as workers headed into their offices in central Madrid from the surrounding suburbs, prosecution documents showed. Seven additional members of the group later blew themselves up after being cornered by police in the Madrid suburb of Leganes. A policemen was also killed in the incident.

The attackers emerged from a group of Arab immigrants in Spain who recruited young muslims for al-Qaeda training camps and wanted to impose sharia law in Spain, the prosecution documents said. The leader of that group, the Syrian, Emad Eddine Barakat Yarkas, was sentenced to 12 years in jail last year for his role in planning the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on New York.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sills in Madrid at bsills@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 15, 2007 05:53 EST