Police arrest 12 'linked' to Madrid train bombings

SPANISH police yesterday arrested 12 people in connection with last year’s Madrid train bombings. Six Moroccans, three Syrians, one Egyptian, one Palestinian and one Algerian were held in Madrid.

Four of those arrested - Moroccan brothers whose family name is Haddad - had close links to Youssef Belhadj, a Moroccan suspected of being the al-Qaeda spokesman in whose name the Madrid bombings were claimed. He was extradited from Belgium to Spain yesterday.

A police spokesman said the Haddad brothers gave Belhadj accommodation in Madrid during a visit in 2003.

The spokesman said the 12 were not suspected of direct involvement in carrying out the attacks, but in preparations months before. The bombings of four commuter trains, on 11 March, 2004, killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500.

Among the newly detained is 33-year-old Mahamad Tiazounie, of Syrian origin, who is considered the personal assistant of a Tunisian named Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, one of seven key suspects in the bombings who killed themselves in a suicide blast on 3 April as police moved in to arrest them.

More than 20 people, mostly Moroccans, have been jailed on charges in connection with the Madrid bombings. More than 50 others are still considered suspects.