Sleepers waken nightmare

By ELIZABETH NASH in Madrid

The terror commando may have self-destructed, in Europe's first experience of a suicide bombing, but the Spanish Interior Minister was in far from triumphal mood yesterday.

Security forces fear that other would-be terror cells may be activated and wreak further havoc.

The Interior Ministry named three suspects still being sought as Amer el Aziz, 36, Sanel Sjekirica, 23, and Rabei Osman Ahmed, 33.

Interior Minister Angel Acebes said that up to three men had escaped from the flat in Leganes before those inside blew themselves up. The nationalities of the three named men were not given.

Many of those detained in connection with the March 11 bombings, although of Arab origin, had lived for years in Spain. They were recruited by fanatical Islamists - such as Serhane ben Abdelmajid Farkhet, 35, known as El Tunecino (The Tunisian), who died on Sunday - who are the linkmen with Islamic extremists.

The suicides of Islamist radicals suspected of the March 11 bombings, far from solving a problem, presents a new, graver one: that sleeper cells dormant in Spain might arise to mount suicide missions.

Saturday's rail-line bomb scare was the first example of a terror attack linked to al Qaeda mounted so rapidly after another attack in the same country.

Spanish police had been almost convinced that the next action would happen in another European country, only to find they had to redouble efforts on the home front. Madrid's tragic experience suggests that the terrorist infrastructure is better established than was supposed.

Suicide bombers can operate in Europe. If bombers do not die in the act - as they did not in the rucksack bombings of March 11 - it is because they need not, and because they want to commit further attacks.

The authorities are also worried about the indeterminate quantity of dynamite still unaccounted for. More than 100kg was acquired from an explosives depot in Asturias at the end of February by suspects detained after March 11, but only a small portion of the explosive has been used.

Spain's is in a race against time, with police fearing a "contagion effect" will activate sleeping cells of radicals.

Farkhet was one of six men for whom arrest warrants were issued last week. The bearded Tunisian was well known among Madrid's immigrants. He had been urging his followers to wage a jihad or holy war against Spain for more than a year. In recent months, those who knew him say he became influenced by the teachings of al Qaeda extremists.

The Tunisian was described by the man leading the investigation, Judge Juan del Olmo, as "the energising force" for holy war in Spain and leader of the train bombing cell. But investigators are still trying to determine if someone abroad masterminded and financed the attacks in Spain.

Another man on the wanted list, Abdennabi Kounjaa, a Moroccan, was among the four who died. A third - Asri Rifaat Anouar - was not. And the fourth remains unidentified.

One of the dead bombers was found with a belt carrying 2kg of explosives wrapped around his body, Interior Minister Acebes said. Police found 200 detonators identical to those used in the March 11 attacks and in a bomb placed alongside a rail track between Madrid and Seville on Saturday that failed to detonate.

The foiled bomb attempt suggested that Islamic radicals aim to keep on targeting Spain, despite the electoral victory three weeks ago of the Socialist leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, with a clear mandate of withdrawing troops from Iraq. A message attributed to al Qaeda sent on March 11 warned that Spain would be a terror target because of its support for President George Bush's war on Iraq.

Security throughout Spain has been raised to unprecedented heights authorities realise they are up against ruthless terrorists.

"These guys give no warning for what they plan to do. They are indiscriminate in their threat to civilians: as far as they are concerned, the more killed the better," one policeman said at the weekend.

But as the suspects in the March 11 attack were rounded up, the assumption was that a future attack would most likely occur elsewhere in Europe. The spotlight turned towards Britain, as Bush's other key European ally, but the prospect of a prolonged vendetta against Spain is now thought real.

The Spanish Embassy in Egypt was reported at the weekend to have received a letter from an Islamic militant group threatening new attacks if Spain did not withdraw its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Zapatero, while stressing his desire to bring Spanish troops home from Iraq, has pledged to strengthen Spain's military presence in Afghanistan. Colin Powell, the American Secretary of State is believed to have convinced Zapatero to work for a United Nations resolution that would enable Spanish troops to remain in Afghanistan.

- INDEPENDENT