Madrid bombing suspect talked of jihad last year

1.00pm

MADRID - A Tunisian man wanted as a ringleader in the Madrid train bombings began agitating for "jihad" (holy war) in Madrid in mid-2003 if not earlier, according to arrest warrants released today.

The Tunisian, Serhane ben Abdelmajid Farkhet, 35, was identified by the warrants as the "personal leader and co-ordinator" of those implicated in the March 11 attack, which killed 191 people three days before Spain's general election.

The other five named in the warrants are Moroccan, including one man traced to an al Qaeda meeting in Istanbul in 2000, two brothers of the only woman jailed in the case, and a man who rented the house used to prepare the bombs.

Farkhet "not only was the energising force for the awareness campaign for the jihad... but also with specific intent (since the middle of 2003 at least) for the preparation of a violent act in Spain, specifically in the Madrid area," the warrants issued by the lead investigator, Judge Juan del Olmo, said.

By mid-2003, US-led forces had occupied Iraq and toppled President Saddam Hussein. A purported al Qaeda spokesman claiming responsibility for the Madrid rail bombings said they were revenge for Spain's firm support of the war.

Farkhet, also known as "The Tunisian" and also spelled Fakhet by the Interior Ministry, becomes the first person from that North African country suspected in the case.

So far the investigation has focused on suspects from Morocco, just across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain and the home country to most of the 19 suspects under arrest.

Spain's Interior Ministry has identified the al Qaeda-linked Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group as the prime suspect in the bombings.

Investigators have also said they are working with foreign security services to track down suspects further afield, including Abdelkarim el Mejjati, the suspected operational leader of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group.

Mejjati is sought by the FBI and wanted in Morocco and Saudi Arabia in connection with last year's bombings in Casablanca and Riyadh. He has not been named in a warrant in the Madrid case.

The warrants were the first court documents made available to reporters in the highly secretive case, in which suspects are being processed under Spain's strict anti-terrorist laws.

Named in the warrants were Jamal Ahmidan, 33, identified as having rented the house where the Madrid bombs were prepared; brothers Mohamed Oulad Akcha, 28, and Rachid Oulad Akcha, 33, and Abdennabi Kounjaa, 28, who the documents say spent time in the house; and Said Berraj, 31, for an unspecified role in the attacks.

The documents say Berraj is suspected of ties to al Qaeda for "attending a meeting in October 2000 in Istanbul (Turkey) with three other presumed members of al Qaeda".

Increasingly the core suspects are turning out to be from the northern Moroccan coastal area known as the Rif, once colonised by Spain.

"We are not surprised by this," Jamal Amiar, editor of Les Nouvelles du Nord, the region's largest newspaper, said.

The Rif is a haven for smugglers of cannabis, immigrants and contraband, and also where Morocco has cracked down on Islamist political parties.

"If conventional politics used drug dealers' money, why shouldn't underground politics take advantage of this precious resource?" said Amiar, referring to corruption scandals in the Rif and news reports the Madrid bombers paid for stolen dynamite with hashish.

- REUTERS