8th terror suspect seized in Spain
From CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish police have arrested an eighth suspected radical Islamic man over a possible plot to blow up the National Court building in Madrid, Spain's interior minister said.
Jose Antonio Alonso on Tuesday confirmed the eighth arrest, of an Algerian man in the northern city of Pamplona, in a brief statement to reporters. The arrest came the day after seven suspects were detained.
He said the group "was thinking of terrorist attacks" apparently against "the National Court or another judicial venue."
The eight suspects had been considering using a truck bomb loaded with 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of explosives against the National Court, an anti-terrorism investigator told CNN.
The National Court, in central Madrid, handles terrorism cases, and the eight suspects will be headed there for arraignment.
But Alonso said Tuesday that "no explosives or weapons have been found" in searches of premises linked to the suspects.
It was a National Court judge, Baltasar Garzon, who ordered the raids against the "radical and violent Islamic activists," as the Interior Ministry described them in a statement.
Many of the seven suspects arrested late Monday had prison records and they also maintained contact with individuals elsewhere in Europe, the United States and Australia, the Interior Ministry statement said.
The eight suspects, all Muslims living in Span who had previous arrest records for common crimes, include four Algerians, a Moroccan and a Spaniard.
The identities of the other two were not immediately confirmed by the Interior Ministry, although the ministry said one of those was thought to be another Algerian.
Police arrested four of the suspects in southeastern Almeria province, and the other four in the provinces of Valencia, Malaga, Madrid and Navarra, whose capital is Pamplona.
The Interior Ministry described the suspects as a "network comprised of Muslims living in Spain who mostly have spent time in various prisons," the statement said.
Garzon, a principal investigator of Islamic terrorism, is not the main judge investigating the Madrid train bombings of last March 11, which killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800 others.
Authorities blamed those attacks on Islamic terrorists. But since the mid-1990s, Garzon has been probing other Islamic terrorist links in Spain, and last year he indicted 35 people, including Osama bin Laden, for terrorist activities.
Some of the 35 suspects named in Garzon's indictment were charged with a role in the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
A ninth suspect possibly linked to the group is an Algerian man who was arrested in Switzerland about a month ago.
This man may have been the organizer and recruiter of the group in Spain, the anti-terrorism investigator told CNN.
The Interior Ministry said the Algerian suspects arrested Monday were Smail Latrech, arrested in the town of El Ejido in Almeria province; Mourad Yala, alias "Abu Anas," arrested in the town of Cabanuelas, Almeria province; and Djamel Merabet, arrested in Malaga.
The Algerian suspect arrested Tuesday in Pamplona was identified as Majad Sahouane.
The Moroccan was identified as Magid Mchmacha, arrested in Almeria, and the Spaniard was identified as Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed.
He was born in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on Morocco's north coast, and was arrested in Madrid.
The two suspects whose nationalities were not immediately known were described as Ali Omar, alias "Jelloul," arrested in the town of Gandia in Valencia province, and a suspect known as "Medhi," who did not have proper identification papers but appeared also to be an Algerian.
This suspect was also arrested in Cabanuelas, Almeria province, the Interior Ministry statement said.
