2004 Madrid train bombings: what Wikipedia removed
The March 2004 Madrid commuter train bombings killed 193 people in an attack tied to a cell inspired by al-Qaeda. As of October 6, 2023, the opening subtitle read “Jihadist attack on Madrid’s suburban trains.” Today’s subtitle reads “Terrorist attack on Madrid’s suburban trains”; the word “jihad” survives twice elsewhere in the article. A reader today learns the attack was terrorism in general but not that Wikipedia, until just before October 7, 2023, specifically labeled it jihadist.
The word “jihad” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 6 October 2023. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 2. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.
The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot
Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”| word | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| jihad | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| terror | 1 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 9 |
| islamist | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.
What was taken out
Section titled “What was taken out”- This passage stated that the official Spanish judicial investigation found who carried out the attacks; a reader today does not learn that investigative finding.
- This passage said the September 2007 sentence established no known mastermind and no direct al-Qaeda link; a reader today does not learn that finding.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2005 (revision 17916361):
The 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks (also known as 11/3 , 3/11 , M-11 and 11-M ) were a series of coordinated terrorist bombings against the commuter train system of Madrid , Spain on the morning of 11 March 2004 , which killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800. File:Ac.madrid2.jpg The scene of one of the Madrid bombings.
2025 (revision 1297741937):
Terrorist attack on Madrid’s suburban trains “11M” redirects here. For major earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan, see 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami . The 2004 Madrid train bombings (also known in Spain as 11M ) were a series of coordinated, nearly simultaneous bombings against the Cercanías commuter train system of Madrid , Spain, on the morning of 11 March 2004—three days before Spain’s general elections . The explosions killed 193 people and injured around 2,500. The bombings constituted the deadliest terrorist attack carried out in the history of Spain and the deadliest in Europe since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. The attacks were carried out by individuals who opposed Spa…
Related
Section titled “Related”- The drift report: what changed across all 61,944 watched articles
- The case file for this article, with every snapshot and every marked removal
- Who made the cuts: removals grouped by the account that made them
- The live article on Wikipedia
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