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http://www.newsmax.com/international/spain_terror_arrests/2008/01/19/65774.html
14 Suspected of Planning Spain Attack
Saturday, January 19, 2008
MADRID, Spain -- Fourteen suspected Islamic militants arrested in Spain on
Saturday may have been planning a terrorist action in Barcelona, the
interior minister said.
Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said more arrests were expected
and the country was on high security alert. He said overnight searches of
the suspects' homes unearthed four timers.
"When someone has timers at home you have no option but to think violent
acts are being planned," he said.
The arrests in Barcelona were prompted by information from several European
intelligence agencies, and there was evidence the suspects _ 12 Pakistani
nationals and two people from India _ could have been planning "a terrorist
action" in the northern city, he told a news conference.
Civil Guard officers made the arrests as part of raids planned with the
National Intelligence Center, the Spanish equivalent of the CIA, Rubalcaba
said.
Europe's worst Islamic-linked terror attack took place in Spain on March 11,
2004, when bombs went off in railway carriages during the morning rush hour
near Madrid's Atocha station. The attack killed 191 people injured more than
1,800. Twenty-one people have been convicted of involvement in that attack.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, Spanish police
have arrested hundreds of Islamic terrorism suspects, many in connection
with the Madrid attack.
In recent years police have also focused on cells suspected of recruiting
mujahedeen fighters and suicide bombers, or of collecting money to finance
Al-Qaida-linked groups abroad.
The Madrid train attacks were claimed by Muslim militants who said they had
acted on behalf of al-Qaida to avenge the presence of Spanish troops in
Iraq, but Spain's courts found no evidence al-Qaida ordered or financed the
attacks.
14 Suspected of Planning Spain Attack
Saturday, January 19, 2008
MADRID, Spain -- Fourteen suspected Islamic militants arrested in Spain on
Saturday may have been planning a terrorist action in Barcelona, the
interior minister said.
Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said more arrests were expected
and the country was on high security alert. He said overnight searches of
the suspects' homes unearthed four timers.
"When someone has timers at home you have no option but to think violent
acts are being planned," he said.
The arrests in Barcelona were prompted by information from several European
intelligence agencies, and there was evidence the suspects _ 12 Pakistani
nationals and two people from India _ could have been planning "a terrorist
action" in the northern city, he told a news conference.
Civil Guard officers made the arrests as part of raids planned with the
National Intelligence Center, the Spanish equivalent of the CIA, Rubalcaba
said.
Europe's worst Islamic-linked terror attack took place in Spain on March 11,
2004, when bombs went off in railway carriages during the morning rush hour
near Madrid's Atocha station. The attack killed 191 people injured more than
1,800. Twenty-one people have been convicted of involvement in that attack.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, Spanish police
have arrested hundreds of Islamic terrorism suspects, many in connection
with the Madrid attack.
In recent years police have also focused on cells suspected of recruiting
mujahedeen fighters and suicide bombers, or of collecting money to finance
Al-Qaida-linked groups abroad.
The Madrid train attacks were claimed by Muslim militants who said they had
acted on behalf of al-Qaida to avenge the presence of Spanish troops in
Iraq, but Spain's courts found no evidence al-Qaida ordered or financed the
attacks.
