|
More on the Spanish arrests
Spanish police arrested 16 suspected Islamist militants on Wednesday, including 11 followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and men preparing to become suicide bombers, Spain's Interior Ministry said in a faxed statement, according to published reports. It was the second European sweep in the last two days against suspected supporters of the Iraqi insurgency, following Germany's arrest of three Iraqis on Tuesday. 11 of the terror suspects were reportedly part of a support group for a Syrian-based recruitment network for attacks on U.S. and allied forces, and some of them had said they themselves wanted to become "martyrs for Islam" and were awaiting orders to do so, the Interior Ministry said. Most of the 11 are reported to be Moroccan and nearly all of them sold drugs and committed robberies to finance the network, according to published reports. Some of the remaining suspects could be implicated in the March 11, 2004, Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people and injured more than 1,500, according to the statement today. Investigations in Spain, Italy, Germany and Sweden suggest Ansar al-Islam -- a group with which the United States linked Zarqawi before the Iraq invasion -- has emerged as the most prominent militant group engaged in recruitment. Spanish police broadened their anti-terrorist investigations after suspects who helped plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. were discovered in Spain, and following evidence found after the Madrid attacks led to Moroccan and other Islamic involvement. More than 500 security officers took part in the Spanish crackdown in Madrid, eastern Spain, the Andalucia region in the south of the country and in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in Morocco, the ministry said. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-06-15 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=121735 |