Spain said on Monday it had arrested two more men linked to the Madrid train bombings after a weekend raid in which the alleged mastermind of the attacks and four accomplices blew themselves up.
Police further tightened security on public transport, airports and strategic sites including nuclear reactors after investigators determined that the terror suspects slain during the police stakeout had been preparing to strike again.
Judicial sources revealed that two further suspects had been arrested on Saturday, while Spanish authorities identified another of the five killed as the man who led the group that carried out the March 11 railway bombings.
A Spanish newspaper meanwhile said it had received a letter purporting to be from al-Qaeda warning Spain to withdraw its forces immediately from Iraq and Afghanistan or face ”hellish” consequences.
Spanish investigators are focusing their investigation into the bombings, which killed 191 people, on the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (MICG), which is said to be linked to al-Qaeda, the terror network headed by Osama bin Laden.
They are looking into the possibility that some suspects might have escaped Saturday’s police raid in the southwestern Madrid suburb of Leganes and taken explosives with them.
Spaniards were again planning to hold anti-terrorism demonstrations in several cities, echoing the massive rallies held in the wake of the Madrid attacks, the worst to date in Spain.
Five terror suspects including the presumed mastermind of the bombings — Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, known as ”the Tunisian” — blew themselves up on Saturday after police cornered them in Leganes.
Spanish judicial sources said on Monday autopsies had revealed the identities of four of the five, including Jamal Ahmidan, a Moroccan believed to have been the leader of the bombing team.
Another key suspect, Moroccan Jamal Zougam, is in custody facing provisional charges of murder and terrorism along with 14 other detainees.
Aside from Fakhet and Ahmidan the other two bodies identified were Moroccan pair Abdennabi Kounjaa and Asri Rifat Anouar, the latter’s name surfacing in the inquiry for the first time.
The latest two suspects arrested are expected to face questioning on Wednesday.
”The inner circle of people who committed the terrorist acts are either behind bars or died in yesterday’s collective suicide,” outgoing Interior Minister Angel Acebes said on Sunday.
His ministry said on Monday that security had been stepped up on high-speed railway lines from Madrid as well as at airports and other ”strategic” sites, with Spanish airspace surveillance also ramped up.
Media reports said nuclear reactors were also under tighter surveillance.
Last Friday a bomb was found on the Madrid-Seville track, prompting an overhaul of transport security in what Acebes said was a ”second phase” of Spain’s anti-terrorist operation.
Acebes has called in 45 helicopters as part of the security operation as well as armoured vehicles and mobilised all police dog-handling units.
Police issued photographs of three men they want to question over the March 11 attacks, named as Amer El Aziz, Sanel Sjekirica and Rabei Ousmane Ahmed.
The ABC daily earlier reported it had received a fax at about the time of Saturday’s police raid purporting to be from al-Qaeda warning Spain to withdraw its forces immediately from Iraq and Afghanistan or face ”hellish” consequences.
”The Spanish state has continued its aggressions against Muslims in sending new troops to Iraq and announcing its intention to send new units to Afghanistan,” ABC quoted the Arabic language letter as saying.
Calling on Spain to desist from helping ”enemies of the Muslim community — the United States and its allies” — the statement added: ”If these demands are not met we will declare war on you and turn your country into a hell where blood will flow in rivers. This is our last warning.” — Sapa-AFP