SPAIN: A prosecutor has asked a Spanish judge to issue new arrest warrants in the Madrid train bomb investigation, indicating that some suspects remain at large even though about 20 are known to be either dead or in custody.
It was not clear how many warrants the prosecutor was seeking, the Europa Press news agency said, quoting legal sources. No comment was made by the prosecutor's office.
High court judge Juan del Olmo is expected to take several days to decide on the request.
Judge del Olmo has so far issued six arrest warrants in connection with the suspected al-Qaeda bombing of four packed Madrid commuter trains on March 11th which killed 191 people.
Three of the wanted men were among up to six people killed when they blew themselves up on Saturday in a suburban Madrid apartment rather than surrender to police.
Spain's Interior Minister, Mr Angel Acebes, said after the end of the siege in the Leganes suburb that the "core group" responsible for the attacks was either detained or dead, although a handful of accomplices could still be at large.
But the nervousness of the authorities over possibile further attacks was shown by their decision to call in the army to raise the level of security around strategic installations. The El Pais newspaper said that the police and army had tightened the controls on Spain's borders, and especially in Ceuta and Melilla, Spanish territories on the North African coast.
The army was guarding petro-chemical and nuclear plants "because of the certainty that those who ordered [the attacks on\] March 11th gave instructions to commit new attacks later", El Pais said.
Extra police had been deployed on Madrid's metro, a job normally left to private guards, and troops were dotted along the route of the high-speed Madrid-Seville railway line, which was the target of a foiled bomb attack last week.
Sixteen people are being held over the bombings. The latest suspect arrested, a Moroccan detained in Ceuta at the weekend, is expected to appear in court today.
Police are also investigating a letter sent to the ABC newspaper, purportedly from al-Qaeda, which threatened more attacks in Spain unless Madrid withdrew its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
ABC quoted sources close to the investigation as saying that the letter could be related to documents seized at the apartment in Leganes.
Police believe that the people who blew themselves up at Leganes, also killing a police officer, may have been planning a series of bombings over the Easter holiday weekend.