Spain on high alert after suspected Islamic militants arrested
Sunday January 20 2008
Fourteen suspected Islamic militants arrested in Spain yesterday may have been planning a terrorist attack in Barcelona, officials warned.
Interior minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said more arrests were expected and the country was on a high security alert.
The arrests in Barcelona were prompted by information from several unspecified European intelligence agencies, he said. Those arrested include 12 Pakistani nationals and two people from India.
There were fears a cell could have been planning "a terrorist action'' in the city, he told a news conference.
The minister said police had found four timers.
"When someone has timers at home you have no option but to think violent acts are being planned,'' he said.
Police officers made the arrests as part of raids planned with the National Intelligence Centre, the Spanish equivalent of the CIA, Mr Rubalcaba said. Five homes were searched overnight, he said.
Prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero confirmed the arrests and said investigations were continuing.
Europe's worst Islamic-linked terror attack took place in Spain on March 11, 2004, when bombs went off in railway carriages during the morning rush hour near Madrid's Atocha station. The attack killed 191 people and injured more than 1,800. Some 21 people have been convicted of involvement in that attack.
Since the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington in 2001, Spanish police have arrested hundreds of Islamic terror suspects.
In recent years, police have also focused on cells suspected of recruiting Mujahideen fighters and suicide bombers, and those suspected of collecting money to finance al- Qaeda-linked groups abroad.
Responsibility for the Madrid train attacks was claimed by Muslim militants, who said they had acted on behalf of al-Qaeda to avenge the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq, but Spain's courts found no evidence al-Qaeda ordered or financed the attacks.
