| Omar Nakhcha | Omar Nakhcha | al-Qaeda in Europe | Europe | 20060115 | Link |
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| Spanish Judge Indicts 22 for Terror | ||
| 2007-10-24 | ||
One of those arrested, Moroccan Omar Nakhcha, 24, was also charged with helping some of those involved in the 2004 Madrid train bombings to escape from justice. The bombings killed 191 people and wounded 1,800.
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| Spanish al-Qaeda leader remanded |
| 2006-01-17 |
| Spain's High Court has remanded the alleged ringleader of a group of suspected Islamists accused of recruiting fighters to send to Iraq to carry out suicide bombings for al Qaeda, a judicial source said. Omar Nakhcha was also suspected of having helped three of the suspects in the Madrid March 11 train bombings escape Spain. Another 14 suspects, some of whom were based around a mosque, were remanded at the weekend. |
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| Spain detains suspected Iraq recruiters | |
| 2006-01-15 | |
 A Spanish High Court judge has remanded in custody seven suspects accused of recruiting fighters to carry out bombings in Iraq. Judge Fernando Andreu said in a court order on Saturday that the group, based in the northeastern Catalan town of Vilanova i la Geltru, was based around a mosque.
The seven were among 21 arrested this week who Spanish authorities say formed two cells of alleged radical Islamists. The group was believed to have recruited an Algerian who killed 19 Italians and nine Iraqis when he blew himself up in Iraq in 2003. Along with Samadi, others sent to prison pending trial were named as Mohamed Mrabet Fahsi, Hassan Mordoude, Mostapha Fawzi Ait Oudriss, Mostapha Es Satty, Mounir Mrabet Fahsi and Abdelhak Boudina. Another man, who was not named, was released but ordered to make regular appearances before police. The rest of those arrested this week may be charged later on Saturday by another judge at Spain's High Court. One of them, Omar Nakhcha, is thought to have helped three of the suspects in the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people, escape Spain. | |
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| Europe |
| Spanish al-Qaeda leader helped 3 3/11 suspects flee the country |
| 2006-01-13 |
| Spain said yesterday that it had arrested a Moroccan man who police say helped three key suspects in the 2004 Madrid train bombings flee the country. The Interior Ministry identified the man as Omar Nakhcha, 23, and said he helped Mohamed Afalah, Mohamed Belhadj, and Daouh Ouhnane escape from Spain after the March 11, 2004, Madrid train bombings, which killed 191 people. Nakhcha, who authorities believe was in Belgium at the time, arranged for their passage to Iraq via Syria, the ministry said. Spanish authorities believe Afalah died in a suicide attack in Iraq in May 2005, and a government source said it was likely the other two also joined the insurgency against the Iraqi government and the US-led forces supporting it. ''The other two arrived in Iraq, but we don't know where they are now," the source said. Nakhcha's arrest and that of 20 people earlier this week point to growing evidence that Iraqi militants recruited fighters in European countries to join the insurgency in Iraq. French officials said last year that at least five young men from a single Paris district had already died fighting in Iraq, one of them in a suicide attack. A 38-year-old Belgian woman blew herself up near Baghdad in November in what was believed to be the first suicide attack in Iraq by a European woman. The Interior Ministry said Nakhcha, who was arrested while walking down a street in the northeastern region of Catalonia, led two militant cells that sent fighters to Iraq. Police on Tuesday arrested 15 Moroccans, three Spaniards, one Turk, and an Algerian accused of being members of the cells. But Nakhcha's most intriguing suspected link is to the March 11 bombings. |
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| Europe |
| Head of Spanish al-Qaeda cells jugged |
| 2006-01-12 |
| Spain said on Thursday it had arrested a Moroccan man suspected of heading two al Qaeda-linked cells and helping men involved in the 2004 Madrid bombings flee the country. In an Interior Ministry statement, the man was named as Omar Nakhcha, the alleged ring-leader of two cells believed to have recruited Islamist fighters for Iraq. The units were dismantled by police earlier this week and 20 people were arrested. Nakhcha, 23, was arrested in the northeastern province of Barcelona. Larbi Ben Sellam, a suspected Islamist militant arrested in June last year, told police that Nakhcha helped three suspects Mohamed Afalah, Mohamed Belhadj and Daouh Ouhnane to escape from Spain after the Madrid bombings, the ministry said. Nakhcha allegedly arranged from Belgium for the three men to travel to Syria and then Iraq, and helped the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group organise the travel of volunteer fighters between Iraq and Europe. "He supplied the terrorists with false documentation, as well as those who returned to Europe to be integrated into Islamist cells after spending some time in Iraq," the statement said. The two cells operated in Madrid, Barcelona and the Basque country and had connections in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey, Syria and Iraq, the Interior Ministry said. One of the cells broken up on Tuesday was allegedly responsible for recruiting an Algerian who killed 19 Italians and nine Iraqis in a suicide bombing in Iraq in 2003. |
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