With most of the Madrid train bombers believed captured or dead, investigators are hunting a handful of accomplices still at large and trying to trace their ties to international Islamist groups.
The trail from the blasts that killed 191 people and wounded 1,900 on March 11 led to a weekend raid on a suburban apartment where the suspected ringleader and three or four other bombers blew themselves up rather than surrender.
PHOTO: EPA
The blast also killed a police special agent and wounded 15 others, in the latest dramatic event to rock Spain.
The Madrid train bombings came three days before Spain's March 14 general elections, when voters threw out a strongly pro-American party in favor of incoming Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who is threatening to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq.
Last week, authorities reported finding letter bombs sent to three media outlets and a bomb planted beneath a high-speed rail line.
Then came Saturday's suicide blast.
On Sunday Interior Minister Angel Acebes said one of the men killed in the explosion was Serhane ben Abdelmajid Farkhet, 35, a Tunisian described by the judge leading the investigation as "the energizing force" for holy war in Spain and leader of the train bombing cell.
Another terrorist, who died amid reported cries of "God is great!", was identified as Abdennabi Kounjaa, 28, who, like the Tunisian, was the subject of an international arrest warrant.
Investigators were attempting to determine if a fifth bomber died in the blast and whether he was one of those sought in the six international arrest warrants issued last week by High Court Judge Juan del Olmo.
"The investigation is focusing on two or three people who could have escaped [before the suicide blast] ... and of course the international connection or connections with terrorist groups that might exist," Interior Minister Angel Acebes said.
Judge del Olmo considered the Tunisian to be the "personal leader and coordinator" of the attacks in Spain, but investigators have been trying to determine if someone abroad masterminded and financed the attacks, believed to be the first al-Qaeda strikes on the West since Sept. 11, 2001.
Last week Acebes said the prime suspect was the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, a shadowy organisation believed to have ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
In all 15 people, mostly Moroccan, are in jail and formally accused of either carrying out the attacks or collaborating.
Spaniards will pay their respects to the fallen police officer at midday today with a minute of silence in Guadalajara, about 60 km northeast of Madrid, where the elite Special Operations Group has its headquarters.
A demonstration for peace has been called for Monday evening in Leganes, the Madrid suburb where Saturday's suicide bombing took place.
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
Two US Navy pilots were shot down yesterday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of US targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one sustaining minor injuries. However, the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become over the ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite US and European military coalitions patrolling the area. The US military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the
Pulled from the mud as an infant after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and reunited with his parents following an emotional court battle, the boy once known as “Baby 81” is now a 20-year-old dreaming of higher education. Jayarasa Abilash’s story symbolized that of the families torn apart by one of the worst natural calamities in modern history, but it also offered hope. More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed, with others missing. The two-month-old was washed away by the tsunami in eastern Sri Lanka and found some distance from home by rescuers. At the hospital, he was
MILITANTS TARGETED: The US said its forces had killed an IS leader in Deir Ezzor, as it increased its activities in the region following al-Assad’s overthrow Washington is scrapping a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria’s new leader, a senior US diplomat said on Friday following “positive messages” from a first meeting that included a promise to fight terrorism. Barbara Leaf, Washington’s top diplomat for the Middle East, made the comments after her meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus — the first formal mission to Syria’s capital by US diplomats since the early days of Syria’s civil war. The lightning offensive that toppled former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8 was led by the Muslim Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in al-Qaeda’s
RSS