12 terror-linked arrests in Spain
From CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Twelve men with alleged links to terrorism and some of the suspects in last year's Madrid train bombing were arrested Friday by Spanish police, Spain's Interior Ministry said in a written statement.
The arrests came on the same day that a Moroccan man, Youssef Belhadj, was extradited from Belgium to Spain. Belhadj is suspected of being an al Qaeda spokesman in Europe; Spanish authorities said one key claim of responsibility for the attacks apparently was made in his name.
The arrests on Friday -- in Madrid and two nearby towns -- netted six Moroccans, three others of Syrian origin, an Egyptian, an Algerian and a Palestinian.
Four of the Moroccans arrested in the southern Madrid suburb of Getafe were brothers with the last name Haddad. They were identified as Mhamed, 41, Driss, 26, Hassan, 28, and Mohamed, 30, the ministry said.
Police said the four Haddad brothers provided housing in July 2003 for Belhadj, the suspect extradited to Spain on Friday.
Belhadj was arraigned in Madrid later Friday and charged with 191 counts of murder, one for each person killed in the bombings; four counts of damage to the four commuter trains ripped apart by the explosions; and a count of belonging to a terrorist group, a National Court spokeswoman told CNN.
The coordinated terrorist attacks on the trains during the morning rush in Madrid on March 11, 2004, also wounded more than 1,500 people.
Police said the other eight suspects arrested on Friday were linked to Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, a Tunisian considered a prime suspect in the bombings. Fakhet blew himself up three weeks later, in April 2004, as police closed in on the hideout where he and other train bombing suspects had taken refuge.
One of the suspects arrested Friday, Mahamad Tiazounie, was considered Fakhet's "personal assistant who accompanied him on all of his dealings," the ministry said. Tiazounie is 33, of Syrian origin and apparently born in Rome, it added.
Police said the other eight suspects arrested Friday also had participated in radical Islamic indoctrination meetings in Madrid at a flat near the city's main bullring.
Authorities also linked the eight to the Syrian-born Almallah Dabas brothers -- Mouhannad, recently arrested in Madrid and Moutaz, arrested in London, for alleged ties to the train bombings.
Besides the Haddad brothers and Tiazounie, the other seven suspects were identified as: Abdelkrim Lebchina, 30, of Morocco and Abdenbi Lebchina, 35, of Morocco, who are relatives; Mahamad Suleyman, 46, of Syria and Samir Suleyman, 31, of Syria, who are relatives; Mustapha Mohamed Rizk, 30, of Egypt; Mohamed Kafarna, 30, born in the Palestinian territories; and Omar Salwa, 29, born in Algeria.
