MADRID, 16 January 2003 — Police yesterday arrested 16 suspected members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network they believe were preparing attacks and connected with other alleged terrorists arrested recently in Britain and France, officials said.
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said police seized a large amount of explosive and chemical material and documents in the raids on 12 apartments in Barcelona and other cities in northeastern Spain.
There were no immediate details on the possible targets of the alleged attacks. Some 150 police officers using sniffer dogs took part in the predawn raids, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said.
“The network that has been dismantled had connections with the terrorists detained recently in France and the United Kingdom,” Acebes said.
An Interior Ministry statement said four of the alleged terrorists arrested in December in France had previously been in Spain and had had contact with those arrested yesterday. “Those arrested facilitated information and infrastructure to other terrorist groups, they had explosives, they used chemical products and were connected with terrorist cells established in Britain and France,” the statement said.
British police have carried out a series of arrests this month since the deadly poison ricin was found in a London apartment on Jan. 5. In late December, the French police arrested four alleged militants who they said were planning bomb or gas attacks in France and Russia.
Acebes said those detained yesterday in Spain were mostly Algerian citizens and suspected members of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, an Algerian extremist organization. He said they maintained contact with groups in Chechnya and Algeria. Acebes said they had links to Osama Bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, but did not elaborate.
Police also found containers with some chemical components found in resins and synthetic rubber. They also confiscated timing and remote-control devices of the type used in bombs, as well as documents, including forged passports.
The detainees were being brought to Madrid for questioning by National Court investigative magistrate Guillermo Ruiz Polanco, who authorized the operation, Acebes said. The arrests were made at the request of authorities in Britain and France, sources close to Ruiz Polanco said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
With the latest arrests, Spain has now detained 35 suspected terrorists since the Sept. 11 attacks. (AP)
