SPAIN: Spanish police believe they have aborted a suicide bomb attack at the High Court building in the centre of Madrid, writes Jane Walker in Madrid
The news of the plot broke shortly after security forces detained eight suspected Islamic terrorists in different parts of Spain on Monday night. The head of the gang, an Algerian who was reported to be on a fund-raising mission, was detained in Switzerland on an international arrest warrant.
Interior Minister Mr José Antonio Alonso described the group as belonging to "a radical cell still in its rudimentary stages". He called it a "preventative operation" and said the terrorists had not yet acquired the 500 kilos of explosives to detonate outside the court building where many of those accused of the March 11th bombings have been interrogated. The newspaper El Mundo claims the detainees had been in contact with ETA to buy explosives or be put in contact with suppliers. Mr Alonso said anti-terrorist police were in close contact with their counterparts across Europe and in the United States and Australia and were sharing information.
The arrests of the six Algerians, a Moroccan and a Spaniard took place on Monday night in Madrid, Malaga, Almeria and Pamplona. Mr Alonso said no arms or explosives were found in the raids, but he confirmed that police seized €2,000 in cash, telephone cards, letters from Islamic groups, bank lodgement slips and a martyrs' manual written for suicide bombers.
Police have been intercepting their phone calls and investigating the gang since last summer after information was received from an Imam (Islamic priest) and a Moroccan secret service informant. They were heard to talk about waging a "Jihad" and their "hatred" of the west.
The parliamentary commission into the events of March 11th are expected to continue until the end of the year. Former prime minister Mr José María Aznar will be called to testify on November 22nd to find out whether his government hid evidence that it was the work of Islamic terrorists and tried to link it to ETA.
The Prime Minister, Mr José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, will answer questions a week later on the actions of the socialist party in the three days between the bombings and the general elections which gave the socialists an unexpected victory.
Yesterday the commission heard evidence from Mr Juan Manuel Calleja, head of the Madrid Organised Crime and Drug Squad, who admitted his officers had been investigating for common crimes some of the Islamists responsible for the March 11th attack since December 2003.
He said that although most of them had police records for drug dealing and other offences, police had no suspicion they were planning the massacre which killed 191 and injured more than 1,500.
The seventh suicide bomber, Alekema Lamari, who blew himself up on April 3rd along with the other six terrorists and an anti-terrorist police officer, was finally identified this week.