Police identify 6 Moroccans suspected in Madrid attacks

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Police identify 6 Moroccans suspected in Madrid attacks

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The Spanish police have identified six Moroccans who they said helped plant bombs on commuter trains in Madrid last week that killed 200 people and injured some 1,500 others, the Spanish daily El Pais reported Tuesday.

The police identified one of the suspects as Jamal Zougam, 30, who is among the five suspects already in police custody and is increasingly seen as having close ties with Islamic extremists, the report said.

The police, which also released the names of five other suspects, said they have sent officers to Morocco to investigate the Madrid bombings' connection with the suicide bombings that hit Casablanca in May 2003.

Citing investigative sources, the report said it is possible that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who is suspected of his ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network and is allegedly behind the series of terrorist attacks in Iraq, may have played a key role in the Madrid bombings.

Meanwhile, the European Union plans to hold an emergency meeting of justice and interior ministers on Friday to review the organization's action plan on terrorism and other issues.

The El Pais report said that all of the six suspects allegedly have ties with Islamic extremists and that the police obtained testimonies from two witnesses who said they saw Zougam shortly before the bombs exploded on the Madrid trains.

The Associated Press said Zougam is tied to the Casablanca bombings, highlighting his contacts with another suspected terrorist Abdelaziz Benyaich, a Moroccan-French citizen who has been held by Spanish authorities in connection with the Casablanca bombings.

Zougam, who is from the Moroccan town of Tangier located across from Spain, is known to have stayed in Morocco for about a month before the Madrid bombings.

In May 2003, 10-plus suicide bombers carrying explosives in their rucksacks blew themselves up in Casablanca, killing more than 40 people and injuring 100 others.

While explosives-laden rucksacks were used in both Madrid and Casablanca cases, there is no evidence linking the Madrid bombings to suicide bombers. The police have yet to establish the bombings' link with the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Source: agencies

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