Spanish police arrested a family of four on Tuesday suspected of links to the March 11 Madrid train bombings and a militant Islamic group, the Interior Ministry said. Police also issued an international arrest warrant for Youssef Belhadj, who they suspect may have appeared on a videotape claiming responsibility for the Madrid attacks and describing himself as the spokesman of al-Qaeda in Europe. The Moroccan-born Moussaten family -- 20-year-old half brothers Brahim and Mohamed , their father Allal and Mohamed's 42-year-old mother Safia Belhadj -- were seized in the Madrid suburb of Leganes, the ministry said in a statement. It was not immediately clear if Belhadj and the detained mother are related. The family may have formed part of the Salafist-linked Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group and were allegedly connected with group leaders detained in swoops in Belgium, France and Spain in 2004, the statement added. It was also in touch with two men wanted in connection with the March bombings, which killed 191, and may have helped them escape after seven other suspects blew themselves up in a Leganes apartment after a police siege, the statement said. Police were searching the family home and did not rule out further arrests. Youssef Belhadj, who Spain wants extradited, was born in Morocco but currently lives in Belgium, where he was arrested last March but then released.
| So he's on the run, somewhere. Nice going, Belgium. |