Three new suspects arrested in Madrid bombing probe

12.05pm

MADRID - Spanish police arrested three new suspects in connection with the March 11 train bombings in Madrid including the first Egyptian and the first Saudi detained in the case, officials said this morning (NZ time).

The three men, the third of whom was Moroccan, were arrested in Madrid and were being questioned by police, a court official said. Yesterday six Moroccan suspects were released after being cleared of involvement.

Interior Minister Angel Acebes said all three of the new detainees knew other suspects in the case, and the Moroccan had raised suspicion by disappearing from public view on the day the attacks.

Twenty-one people including 15 Moroccans are being held in connection with the attack, which killed 191 people and wounded 1,900 three days before Spain's general election.

In a videotape recovered after seven suspected train bombers blew themselves up rather than surrender on April 3, three men promised more attacks in the name of al Qaeda unless Spain withdraws its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

That would make the train bombings the first attack in the West linked to al Qaeda since the September 11 strikes on the United States in 2001.

Of the 19 hijackers in the attacks on New York and Washington, 15 were of Saudi origin and one Egyptian.

Acebes said it was too early to assign significance to the fact that suspects have been arrested from those countries.

The Egyptian and the Saudi were detained "in order to determine what level of relationship or hypothetical participation they had, or if there was any collaboration," Acebes told a news conference.

Most of the core suspects to date in the Madrid probe have been Moroccan, although authorities say one Tunisian and one Syrian also played central roles.

Police are still searching for a number of identified suspects plus a suspected religious leader or mastermind.

A Bosnian man wanted in Spain for "Islamic terrorism" but not for the train bombings was due to turn himself in to Spanish authorities today upon flying from Sweden, police sources said. Sanel Sjekirica was eager to tell investigators he had nothing to do with train bombings.

He told Bosnia-Herzegovina public radio this week that he temporarily shared a flat with one of the suicide bombers.

"I was renting a room from this guy when I was studying in Madrid. I have no other connection with him," Sjekirica said, according to a report from BBC monitoring.

Yesterday, the judge leading the investigation released six Moroccan suspects. All knew other suspects implicated in the case but the six were found not to have played a role in the March 11 attacks.

One of the men freed was a labourer who, like thousands of illegal immigrants each year, reached Spain by boat from Morocco.

"He cried over how difficult it was for him to get to Spain," the official said following interrogations of the suspects by Judge Juan del Olmo and prosecutors, adding that all six of the released suspects wept in court.

- REUTERS