Reuters News Article Madrid bomb investigators hunt for mastermind Wed 24 March, 2004 09:48 PM
By Daniel Trotta MADRID (Reuters) - Almost two weeks into the Madrid train bombing investigation, Spanish police are fairly certain Moroccan Islamist radicals carried out the attack but they are far from concluding who ordered it. Thirteen suspects, including 10 Moroccans, are in custody over the March 11 bombings of four packed commuter trains, which killed 190 people and wounded almost 1,900 others. Security forces believe the perpetrators are linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network or another radical group but sources say they do not know who ordered or financed the attack. "The inspiration, the ideological support for this, came from outside Spain," a source close to the inquiry told Reuters. He conceded that penetrating the clandestine network of extremist groups was proving difficult. "Everything points to Morocco but the radical Islamic world is very complex." Investigators are looking at the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), but that is only one of a number of known Islamist militant groups in North Africa. The 13 suspects in detention all lived in Spain, most of them Moroccans in Madrid's multiracial district of Lavapies. Sources say investigators suspect other extremists may have come into Spain to lead or join the plot -- and fled afterwards. Investigators believe that whoever made a videotape with a purported al Qaeda claim of responsibility found by police after the attack was linked to the bombings, but they are not sure if, as the tape says, they represent al Qaeda Europe. Eleven of the 13 suspects in detention have gone before a judge who ruled there was enough evidence to keep them in jail. Of the 11, four Moroccans and a Spaniard each stand accused of 190 murders and at least 1,400 attempted murders. Six others -- four Moroccans and two Indians -- are accused of belonging to or collaborating with a "terrorist group", indicating a lesser involvement. The remaining two suspects have yet to go before judge Juan del Olmo, who is leading the investigation. Two others were released for lack of evidence. All the suspects have denied involvement in the bombings. The Spaniard, a former miner, admitted to telling three Moroccans where they could easily steal dynamite but denied knowing it would be used to kill civilians, court sources said. LUCKY BREAK The lead suspect is Jamal Zougam, who allegedly has close ties with Islamist militants and has been under watch by Spanish, French and Moroccan agents since 2001 at least. The arrest of Zougam and the suspects stemmed from what investigators concede was a lucky break -- an unexploded bomb. Ten bombs exploded aboard the trains and three others were destroyed in controlled explosions on the spot. But the 14th bomb, unexploded and packed in a sports bag, was unwittingly taken to a police station with other luggage recovered from the trains and was only discovered hours later. The bomb's detonator was connected to a mobile phone and its alarm was set to trigger the explosion -- in this case exactly 12 hours after the other bombs -- but it failed. The phone's SIM card led police to a small telephone centre run by Zougam in Lavapies, and in turn to the other suspects. The other big break in the case came from a stolen van parked near the train station in the suburb of Alcala de Henares where the perpetrators are believed to have boarded the trains. Police recovered from the van seven detonators, a small amount of explosives and an audio tape of Koranic verses. ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
