Spain breaks up two large al Qaeda cells recruiting and indoctrinating “holy warriors†for Iraq
At least 20 suspects have been arrested in an ongoing operation and more detentions are expected by Spanish interior minister Jose Atonio Alonso. They were detained in Madrid, Vilanova y la Geltru near Barcelona and Tolosa in the Basque province of Guipuzcoa.
The Barcelona cell recruited the Algerian suicide bomber who killed 19 Italians and 9 Iraqis in Nasiriya in Nov. 2003. The Spanish and Italian security forces worked together to prove the link. The cells had connections in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Members were also associated with the al Qaeda-linked Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group which had a key role in the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 191, and the Algerian-based Salafist Group for Call and Combat.
“They were in an organization dedicated to international terrorism and linked to al Qaeda,” Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said at the news conference, held at Interior Ministry headquarters.
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