Suicide bombers target Moscow subway system

Two female suicide bombers killed at least 38 people and wounded more than 100 others earlier today when they detonated explosives on the Moscow subway at the height of rush hour.

The first blast occurred in the Lubyanka station shortly before 8 a.m., and the second destroyed a subway car near the Park Kultury station. The Moscow Times speculated Russian officials would most likely attribute the attacks to Islamist insurgents who continue to operate in the North Caucasus region. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin quickly condemned the bombings.

"A crime that is terrible in its consequences and heinous in its manner has been committed," he said.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority here in New York has beefed up security in response to the Moscow bombings, but waking up to this news brought me back to the morning of March 11, 2004 and how I found out terrorists had killed 191 people on Madrid commuter trains. The threat of terrorism here in the five boroughs periodically crosses my mind, especially if authorities thwart a plot against the subway system or a high profile landmark. That said, however, a terrorist's most effective weapon remains fear. And the best way to counter it is to remain defiant of it.

Bomb kills two Spanish police officers

A little more than a day after a car bomb injured more than 40 people in Burgos, a second device killed two Spanish police officers on Mallorca.

The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported the bomb destroyed the car in which two Civil Guard members, aged 27 and 28, were riding shortly before 2 p.m. local time. The device detonated outside a Civil Guard barracks in Calvia. And the attack took place near a popular beach and within kilometers of the Spanish royal family's summer home.

Spanish authorities have blamed ETA for both attacks. And there is precedent to suggest members of the group potentially could have planted the Calvia bomb as a way to disrupt Spain's lucrative tourism industry.

Another factor that could potentially contribute to a possible upsurge in ETA attacks is tomorrow marks the group's 50th anniversary. The group violated its own self-imposed ceasefire in Dec. 2006 when its members detonated a bomb inside a parking garage at Barajas Airport in Madrid that killed two people. Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's government initially blamed ETA for the 2004 Madrid train bombings, but evidence quickly suggested Islamic fundamentalists orchestrated the attacks that killed nearly 200 people.

French and Spanish authorities have arrested a number of high-ranking ETA members in recent years, but this latest incident clearly demonstrates the group continues to pose a potential threat.