Terrorists planning the Madrid train bombings held a secret meeting in Turkey at which an al-Qaeda operative was said by Spanish police to have given the go-ahead for the attacks which left 191 people dead on March 11. A report in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo cited police sources as saying that the alleged leader of the Madrid terrorist cell, Sarhane Ben Adbelmajid Fakhet, met an al-Qaeda operative to ask for fighters who could help in the attacks. The operative, Amer Azizi, is a Moroccan whose whereabouts is unknown. According to El Mundo, Mr Azizi rejected the request but recommended to Fakhet that he contact the Madrid-based Moroccan Jamal Zougam and work with him on the plan. Fakhet was described by Spanish police last week as the "co-ordinator and planner" of the Madrid attacks. He, along with as many as five others, blew himself up last weekend when police surrounded an apartment in the Madrid suburb of Leganes in which the bombers were preparing a further attack. Azizi is already known to Spanish counter-terrorism officials. In a 693-page analysis of the alleged involvement of Spain-based terrorists in the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, compiled by Spainâs terrorism judge Baltazar Garzon, Azizi is identified as having been recruited by the alleged ringleader of Spainâs al-Qaeda network, Imad Yarkas also known as Abu Dahdah. Abu Dahdah is currently in jail in Spain.
Judge Garzonâs report cites numerous examples of contacts between Azizi and many alleged members of the al-Qaeda network in Spain. It suggests he was a much more active member of the cell than Zougam. Zougam was arrested within days of the March 11 bombings after a mobile telephone that was to be used as a detonator failed to activate explosives and was traced to his Madrid mobile telephone shop. The meeting in Turkey - thought by several European investigators to have been in Istanbul - is alleged to have taken place in late 2002 or early 2003. According to a senior European counter-terrorism official, the meeting was convened to discuss bombing campaigns, and was one of several that have taken place in the Turkish economic capital. Reports that Azizi was able to meet Fakhet in the city and discuss the terrorist strategy that led more than a year later to the Madrid bombings, come at a time when European security officials are becoming increasingly concerned that Turkey may be a meeting place for terrorists based in the Middle East with connections to cells based in Europe. "Turkey is the interface between Europe and the Middle East, because itâs easy for the terrorists to get there," a senior security official said. "Istanbul is an easy place to go. There have been other meetings there, at which the bombings in Riyadh, Casablanca. Istanbul and Madrid were discussed," he said.
The suicide bombers who attacked two synagogues, the British consulate and a British-owned bank in the city last November, are also thought to have met expert bombmakers there who had travelled to the country from the Middle East. A key figure alleged by officials in Spain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, to have played a role in all the bombings, and who is increasingly thought to have connections with cells ranging from Morocco to Iraq via Spain, is Abu Musab al-Zarkawi. He is said by European intelligence officers to have taught chemical weapons skills at an al-Qaeda training camp in the Afghan city of Herat in 2000-01, and he may be the central figure in the various terrorist structures now operating in Europe. "Al-Zarkawi is not unimportant. He plays a role in Iraq, Jordan, the Caucasus and Turkey," a senior European counter-terrorism official told FT.com. "He has many contacts in Turkey. And there are common factors linking these bombings, in terms of people and material, though Zarkawi is not necessarily the key figure. "For the Madrid bombings there was important contact with individuals outside Europe, and the main contacts are the people who move around a lot," he said. Investigators are now looking more closely at the role Amer Azizi may have played. According to Judge Garzon, Azizi, 24, for whom Spain has issued an arrest warrant, also uses the names Othman al-Andalusi and Othman del Espana. He was allegedly sent by Abu Dahdah for military training at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, and then established his own cell by recruiting Moroccans in Spain, the report says. |
The wife of a jailed Al Jazeera journalist charged by Madrid with belonging to Al Qaida said on Thursday that Spain's prisons had become "another Guantanamo" after authorities isolated suspected militants. Fatima Hamed said her husband Tayseer Alouni, best known for interviewing Osama Bin Laden shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, had been placed in solitary confinement on Wednesday without his lawyer being notified. Spanish authorities are isolating suspected militants in an attempt to stem the spread of radicalism in jails. A spokeswoman for the prison system confirmed Alouni and some 85 other suspects were being held in isolation. Alouni must eat meals in his cell and can only exercise alone on the prison patio for one hour a day despite ill health, his wife said.