Al Qaeda Now Focus of Spain’s Bombing Probe

MADRID —  Spanish police Saturday arrested three Moroccans with possible ties to Islamic extremism in last week’s train bombings here, and hours later the government announced that it had received a videotape in which a man purporting to represent Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Although earlier official statements designated the militant Basque separatist group ETA as the prime suspect in the carnage that left 200 people dead and 1,500 wounded, investigators said they were increasingly convinced that the masterminds were Islamic extremists.

If true, that would mean that Al Qaeda -- or its followers -- has committed its first successful attack in Western Europe.

“It’s looking more like Islamic groups did it,” a high-ranking law enforcement official told The Times.

“ETA looks less likely. We have indications that these Moroccans were connected to the attacks. It’s an important step. But it’s still early.”

The developments in the case fueled a growing uproar on the eve of national elections scheduled for today. Despite a ban on political rallies the day before the vote, the streets of Spanish cities filled Saturday night with protesters who banged pots and pans and loudly accused the government of concealing the truth to protect the center-right ruling party.

The center-left opposition alleges that the government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has downplayed the evidence pointing to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Critics say leaders fear that voters will see the attacks as backlash to Aznar’s staunch support for a war in Iraq that, despite the prime minister’s popularity, was opposed by most Spaniards.

The three Moroccans, along with two Indian men, were arrested in connection with the “sale and falsification” of a prepaid calling card and a cellular phone rigged as a timing device in an explosives-laden backpack that failed to detonate in the Thursday attacks.

“One or another of the Moroccans might have ties to extremist organizations, but it is still too early to determine the precise connection,” Interior Minister Angel Acebes said. “We will see where these arrests take us. This opens an important avenue.”

Last year, several Spaniards were killed by Moroccan suicide bombers who attacked a Spanish cultural center and other Western targets in Casablanca, Morocco.

In the aftermath of that attack, police in Spain arrested a number of suspects at the request of Moroccan authorities, including a veteran Moroccan holy warrior trained by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan who was believed to be planning an attack in France.

The train bombings last week recalled the Casablanca attacks in that they consisted of multiple, simultaneous strikes intended to inflict mass casualties. Unlike many Al Qaeda plots, however, last week’s attacks did not involve suicide bombers or symbolic targets.

Later Saturday, Acebes announced the discovery of the videotape. Speaking Arabic with a Moroccan accent, the man on the tape said the militant network had struck Madrid exactly 2 1/2 years after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States as revenge for Spain’s alliance with the Bush administration, Acebes said.

The authenticity of the claim in the tape, which cited the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, was being investigated. The statement resembled previous genuine communiques from Al Qaeda more than a largely discounted claim of responsibility in an e-mail received last week at an Arabic-language newspaper in London.

Critics have charged that the government focused its initial blame on ETA because the Basque group’s involvement in the attacks probably would boost the ruling party: Aznar has taken a tough stand against that widely despised organization, which nearly killed him with a car bomb when he was running for office eight years ago.

Even among mourners at funerals for the victims Saturday, a wave of anger began to swell over the handling of the case by Aznar’s Popular Party, which has led comfortably in polls.

“The government does not want to tell us the truth until after the election,” said Antonio Trejo, 55, a metalworker attending the funeral of a union comrade. “The government will have to recognize the truth after the election. The reason we are in this mess is because the government took us to war in Iraq.”

Accurate or not, the escalating criticism showed how rapidly and passionately the aftermath of Spain’s worst terrorist attacks has become politicized.

Mariano Rajoy, head of the Popular Party and its candidate to succeed Aznar, denounced the Saturday night demonstrations as illegal and dangerous, accusing the participants of trying to influence the election in an underhanded manner.

Meanwhile, Acebes and other officials insisted that they had been honest with the public.

Although Acebes had declared in his first news conference after the attacks that ETA was to blame, he subsequently revealed that the investigation had widened after the discovery of an audiocassette containing Koranic verses in a stolen van linked to the bombers.

Acebes said Saturday that it was logical to suspect ETA because of its history of attacks here, including an attempted train bombing in Madrid on Christmas Eve.

He did not retreat from the theory that ETA could have been involved, saying, “We cannot discount any possibility.”

But investigators said the round-the-clock work by anti-terrorism units had focused on the nightmarish scenario that Spain had become Europe’s ground zero for militant Islamic terrorism.

Spain has been a hub for Al Qaeda’s European networks, which have taken advantage of its proximity to North Africa and the heavy flow of immigrants and goods to and from Morocco.

Spanish police have arrested several dozen Al Qaeda suspects in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Prosecutors have charged that a Madrid-based cell composed of Syrian-Spanish ideologues and Moroccan foot soldiers had worldwide connections to Al Qaeda figures from Europe to Afghanistan to Indonesia.

Those Madrid suspects allegedly served as accomplices of the Sept. 11 hijackers, who held at least one key strategy session in Spain and obtained fraudulent documents here.

At least half a dozen Al Qaeda plots for bombings, shootings and chemical and biological weapons have been broken up in Britain, France and Germany during the last five years. But extensive surveillance of Al Qaeda suspects in Spain dating back to the mid-1990s never suggested that they were plotting an attack in this country.

European investigators had hoped that the continent might be able to avoid an Al Qaeda strike because of the success of law enforcement in tracking and infiltrating militant Islamic networks -- and because Islamic extremists found Europe more useful as a place for recruitment, logistics and plotting attacks elsewhere.

The crackdown on Al Qaeda during the last two years has changed the landscape, however, as atomized groups act with increasing autonomy and ferocity. The war in Iraq heightened dangers throughout the world, especially in Spain, a U.S. ally.

The investigation still must answer many questions.

Two Spaniards of Indian descent were being questioned along with the five suspects under arrest. So far, the latter are accused only because of their connections to the phone used in the explosive device. Trafficking in cellphones is common in European immigrant communities and does not necessarily imply links to terrorism.

Early today, the Spanish radio network La Ser reported that the three Moroccan suspects were Jamal Soukan, 30, and Mohamed Zaouri, 34, a construction worker, both born in Tangier; and Mohamed Delkadi, 31, a mechanic born in Tetuan.

It is not clear who committed the bombings. Police suspect three men who were seen getting out of the stolen van parked outside the Alcala de Henares train station where some of the bombs were planted. The men concealed their faces with caps, scarves and collars, and at least one entered the station with a backpack-like satchel, according to a witness’ account to police.

Police later found seven detonators and the audiocassette containing Koranic verses in the van -- the only solid clue made public before the arrests that pointed to Islamic extremists.

ETA, meanwhile, immediately became an investigative target because of its Christmas Eve plot. The similarity to Thursday’s attacks remains one of the enigmas of the case.

The attacks appeared to mix the styles and methods of both Basque and Al Qaeda terrorism. Investigators said they were even examining the remote and unprecedented scenario of an alliance between Basque and militant Islamic groups.

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Wilkinson reported from Madrid and Rotella from Barcelona, Spain.