Spanish police arrested four North Africans and a Spaniard today as they investigated the Madrid train bombings that killed 201 people.
Investigators believe one of those arrested played a direct role in the bombings and another one of the four was also believed linked to last year's suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco. The Casablanca blasts killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers. Four Spaniards were among the dead.
Four of the latest suspects are all believed to be from Morocco or another North African country. Three of the four were detained near Alcala de Henares, a commuter town near Madrid where the trains bombed a week ago picked up passengers. The fourth was held in the northern city of Gijon, while a fifth, a Spaniard, was arrested in Oviedo, northern Spain.
On Saturday police made their first five arrests, detaining three Moroccans and two Indians. They are facing a closed-door preliminary hearing today in which the judge will decide whether to release them or order them to stay in custody.
The five arrived at Spain's High Court amid tight security, but were not due to give testimony until later this afternoon.
Interior Minister Angel Acebes said yesterday the investigation of Western Europe's bloodiest guerrilla attack since the 1988 Lockerbie plane bomb was in a "decisive phase".
Spain's incoming Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said again that he would pull Spain's 1,300 troops out of Iraq unless the United Nations took political charge of the situation in the country.
"If the United Nations doesn't take up the reins of the situation, if there isn't a rethink of the chaotic occupation in Iraq, of course the Spanish troops are coming back to Spain," he said in a Spanish television interview tonight.