SPAIN: Spanish police arrested an Algerian yesterday in connection with the massacre on three commuter trains in Madrid last week. He has been brought from the Basque Country to Madrid for questioning by the investigating magistrate, Mr Baltasar Garzón, writes Jane Walker in Madrid
The man, who has not been named, was originally detained briefly in San Sebastian last January on suspicion of drug-dealing.
As he was being taken into custody in January he shouted to police that Atocha station "will be filled with bodies".
At the time his warning was ignored, and it was only after the atrocity Madrid last week - one of them in Atocha station - that the Ertzaintza (Basque police) remembered those ominous words, and an arrest warrant was issued.
This arrest brings to six the number of detentions of suspected Islamic terrorists who are believed to have been responsible for the attack which has so far killed 201 and injured more than 1,500.
Three Moroccans and two Indians were arrested in Madrid on Saturday. The Indians, Mr Vinay Kohli and Mr Sursh Kuna, are accused of supplying the mobile phones and forged SIM cards used by the terrorists to detonate the 13 bombs hidden in bags left on the trains.
The Moroccans, named as Mr Jamal Zougam (30), Mr Mohamed Bekali (31) and Mr Mohamed Chaui (34), all with criminal records, are believed to have been directly involved in the bombings.
They ran a telephone shop in Lavapies, an area of Madrid frequented by immigrants from many nations. Neighbours say they had been carrying out noisy building work in the basement in recent months.
Police raided the premises over the weekend and were seen carrying out boxes and files into waiting vans.
Yesterday the Nuevo Siglo phone store was locked with chains and padlocks, as was the bakery next door.
The immediate investigation points to Mr Zougam, who has been identified by eyewitnesses as one of the men on the train who left a bag in the carriage shortly before the explosion.
He is also believed to have close connections with al-Qaeda and was an important suspect even before the World Trade Centre, when French police asked for him to be investigated.
Acting on this advice police raided the apartment where Mr Zougam was living with his mother and sister in July 2001.
They found names and phone numbers of a number of al-Qaeda suspects, books in Arabic on terrorism and on attacks in Chechnya and a taped interview with Osama bin Laden.
They also have evidence that he was in contact with Abu Dadah, one of those involved in the 9/11 attack, including their meetings in Spain in which the plans for the tragedy were finalised. He is also believed to have been one of the "Afghan Moroccans", who received military training in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. His name appeared on the 700-page judicial decree issued by Judge Baltasar Garzón in 2003 when he charged bin Laden.
Mr Zougam is also believed to have had connections with the bombing in Casablanca in May last year, in which a Spanish club was one of the targets and 12 people died. He is known to be a friend of Abu Mughen and Abdelaziz Benauaich, under detention for that attack. They are known to have stayed in Mr Zougam's apartment when he visited Madrid.
Police are looking for 34 other suspects, including the alleged head of the cell, an Algerian, Mr Said Arel, believed to live in Barcelona.
He is alleged to be acting under the orders of Abu Mosad al-Fakani, a dangerous Jordanian based in Iraqi Kurdistan where he is leader of the Al Sar el Islam, responsible for many of the atrocities in Iraq today.