Al-Qaeda Cell in Spain May Have Planned Europe Attack

Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- One of the al-Qaeda cells arrested early today in Spain may have been planning an attack in Europe, Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said.

Spanish police arrested 20 people comprising two inter- related cells following raids in Madrid, Catalonia and the Basque region, Alonso told reporters in Madrid. The cells were primarily involved in recruiting and training suicide bombers for the Iraq insurgency and had links to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey and Syria, he said.

Those arrested included 15 Moroccans, a Turkish man, an Algerian and three Spaniards. The Algerian, leader of the Madrid- based cell, was trained in Afghanistan and sends recruits for Abu Musab al Zarqawi's network, Alonso said.

``The Madrid cell was carrying out the fuller range of activities,'' Alonso said. ``State security forces can't rule out that among their missions they may have been planning violent acts on European territory.''

Spanish authorities have arrested 52 people suspected of involvement in Islamist terrorism in the past two months. All those arrested remain in prison, an interior ministry spokesman said. The spokesman didn't want to be named.

Those arrested today ``had a great level of coordination than other groups the police have broken up in recent months,'' Alonso added.

Spain, with historic links to Muslim North Africa across the Gibraltar Straits, was used as a base by Islamists involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington and others linked to the Casablanca bombing of May 2003.

The Catalan cell, based in Vilanova i la Geltru near Barcelona, recruited the suicide bomber who killed 19 Italians and 9 Iraqis in a Nov. 12, 2003 attack in Nasariya, Iraq.