October 17, 2008
MADRID: Spanish police have arrested 12 north Africans suspected of links to the 2004 Madrid bombings in which 191 people died.
The arrests broke up an “Islamist terrorist cell” that was supporting al-Qa'ida, the Interior Ministry said.
Eight of the suspects, all Moroccans, were detained in raids carried out overnight in the northeastern province of Catalonia, around Madrid, and in Andalucia in the south.
The suspects are believed to have helped five people implicated in the Madrid bombings to escape.
The raids were ordered by Spain's top anti-terrorist judge, Baltasar Garzon, a judicial source said.
Later in the day, four more people - three Moroccans and an Algerian - were arrested in their prison cells over possible links to some of the eight other suspects.
The incidents add to a string of terrorism-related arrests and incarcerations.
Spanish courts last year ordered 21 people jailed for life in connection to the bombs left on Madrid commuter trains on March 11, 2004. Four have since been acquitted after appeals.
In January, Spanish police broke up what they said was a group of mainly Pakistani Islamist extremists suspected of planning attacks in Barcelona and arrested 15 people.
On June 5, Spain's anti-terrorist court charged 11 of those arrested, most of them Pakistanis, with belonging to a terrorist group.
Overall last year, 52 people were detained in Spain over alleged links to Islamist extremism, the attorney general's office said in a report last month.
Spain's proximity to Algeria and Morocco, where extremist groups have stepped up their activity, and the presence of terrorist training camps in the Sahara desert, were cited as factors putting the country at risk.
MADRID: Spanish police have arrested 12 north Africans suspected of links to the 2004 Madrid bombings in which 191 people died.
The arrests broke up an “Islamist terrorist cell” that was supporting al-Qa'ida, the Interior Ministry said.
Eight of the suspects, all Moroccans, were detained in raids carried out overnight in the northeastern province of Catalonia, around Madrid, and in Andalucia in the south.
The suspects are believed to have helped five people implicated in the Madrid bombings to escape.
The raids were ordered by Spain's top anti-terrorist judge, Baltasar Garzon, a judicial source said.
Later in the day, four more people - three Moroccans and an Algerian - were arrested in their prison cells over possible links to some of the eight other suspects.
The incidents add to a string of terrorism-related arrests and incarcerations.
Spanish courts last year ordered 21 people jailed for life in connection to the bombs left on Madrid commuter trains on March 11, 2004. Four have since been acquitted after appeals.
In January, Spanish police broke up what they said was a group of mainly Pakistani Islamist extremists suspected of planning attacks in Barcelona and arrested 15 people.
On June 5, Spain's anti-terrorist court charged 11 of those arrested, most of them Pakistanis, with belonging to a terrorist group.
Overall last year, 52 people were detained in Spain over alleged links to Islamist extremism, the attorney general's office said in a report last month.
Spain's proximity to Algeria and Morocco, where extremist groups have stepped up their activity, and the presence of terrorist training camps in the Sahara desert, were cited as factors putting the country at risk.
Source: The Australian
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