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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (68334)	1/24/2003 10:53:20 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Respond to of 281500

Spain arrests 16 al Qaida suspects in raids Reuters News Service MADRID, Spain -- Police today arrested 16 suspected members of the al-Qaida terrorist network thought to be preparing attacks, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said. Aznar said police also seized large amounts of explosive and chemical materials and documents in the raids on 12 apartments in northeastern Spain. "Those arrested were preparing to commit attacks with explosives and chemical materials," Aznar told a news conference in the northwestern city of A Coruna. There were no immediate details on the possible targets of the alleged attacks. About 150 police officers using sniffer dogs took part in the pre-dawn raids on apartments in the northeastern provinces of Barcelona, Gerona and Castellon, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said. He said the detainees had links with other terrorist suspects arrested recently in Britain and France. Those detained, he said, were mostly Algerian citizens and suspected members of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, an Algerian extremist organization. He did not provide further details of their identities. Acebes said they had clear links to Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, but did not elaborate. He said police also found barrels containing chemicals, timing and remote control devices of the type used in bombs, as well as many documents, including forged passports. The detainees were to be questioned in Madrid this weekend by National Court investigative magistrate Guillermo Ruiz Polanco, the judge who authorized the operation, the Interior Ministry said. The arrests were made at the request of authorities in Britain and France, said sources close to Ruiz Polanco who spoke on condition of anonymity. Spanish National Radio cited unidentified officials as saying they were Muslims who had come to live in Spain after receiving training in guerrilla camps run by bin Laden. With today's arrests, Spain has now detained 35 suspected Islamic terrorists since the Sept. 11 attacks, Acebes said. Most of the detained remain in jail while several have been released on bail. Mohamed Atta, one of the pilots in the World Trade Center attacks, is believed to have held meetings with other al-Qaida members in Spain in the year running up to the Sept. 11 attacks. Prior to today's raids, the most recent arrest was Dec. 26 when an Algerian man was detained in the northern region of La Rioja on suspicion of links to the Armed Islamic Group and of having trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan. The raids followed investigations carried out after the arrest in June 2001 of suspected Islamic terrorist Mohammed Bensakhria in southeastern Spain, the private news agency Europa Press said. Bensakhiria, allegedly an important operative for Osama bin Laden, was extradited to France. chron.com