Madrid train blast probe leads to Germany, Morocco

10.00am


MADRID - The investigation into the Madrid train bombings led to Germany and Morocco on Friday as police arrested one more suspect in Madrid and hunted for the mastermind of Europe's deadliest bomb attack in 15 years.

In Germany, police searched the apartment of a Moroccan man who is one of those under arrest in Spain, and prosecutors said they were probing his possible links to militant groups.

In Rabat, the Moroccan government said authorities had questioned Moroccans in connection with the bombings but denied a report that a man had been arrested with maps of the targeted stations.

A number of people have been interrogated in the north of Morocco and the security services have completed their probe into the blasts, the official news agency MAP quoted Communications Minister Nabil Benabdallah as saying.

Spanish investigators have called on foreign police and intelligence services to help hunt for those involved in the bombings, believed to be al Qaeda's first major attack in the West since the September 11, 2001, strikes against the United States.

"It was very clear right from the beginning that the Madrid attacks had relations to Germany, to France, and to Britain at least," a senior European intelligence official told Reuters.

"People knew each other, there had been communication. What has come to light now with Darmstadt (Germany) may be a new element but it is not a surprising element," the official said.

Ten bombs simultaneously exploded on four packed commuter trains on the morning of March 11. Four bombs failed to go off, and one of those was recovered and provided a trove of evidence that has led to the arrests in Spain.

Most of those detained come from Morocco, just across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain, including some who were known to authorities for suspected ties to Islamist radicals.

The German angle is potentially significant because investigators believe the September 11 attacks were planned in Germany and Spain. However, they said it was too soon to suggest the Madrid attacks were planned in Germany.

"We have no clues at all that the attacks in Madrid were planned or prepared in Germany," Berlin Interior Minister Otto Schily told reporters on Friday.

Spanish police arrested one person in Madrid on Friday, an Interior Ministry spokesman said, taking to 18 the number of bomb plot suspects detained in Spain.

The judge leading Spain's investigation on Friday cleared one person for lack of evidence and remanded another in custody pending further investigation, court sources said.

Of all those behind bars on suspected links to the bombing, only two or three are believed to have placed the bombs on the trains, sources close to the investigation said. The remainder are suspected of playing lesser roles.

- REUTERS