Madrid suspect tied to 9/11
2004-03-15 16:56
Madrid, Spain - Authorities are investigating whether the terrorist bombings in Madrid and in Casablanca last year may be linked, focusing on a Moroccan who was arrested in Spain over the weekend, a Moroccan official said on Monday.
The suspect, Jamal Zougam, left Morocco just before the May 16, 2003, suicide attacks that killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers, officials said.
"There is a possible link between the network that committed the Casablanca attacks and the one that committed the Madrid attacks," a high-placed Moroccan official said.
The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that police had concluded the Madrid bombers belonged to the same network of Islamic groups responsible for the Casablanca attacks, but did not cite any direct evidence linking them.
An interior ministry spokesperson said he could not comment on the report.
Meanwhile, a Bush administration official said US authorities believe evidence suggests an al-Qaeda tie to the Madrid bombings.
"I'm satisfied there are connections to al-Qaeda," Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary of homeland security said. "The depth of that connection and the total level of responsibility has not yet been determined."
Zougam is one of three Moroccans and two Indians arrested in the Thursday attacks, which killed 200 people. The attack wounded 1 647, authorities said on Monday. Some 240 people remained hospitalised.
Zougam was one of thousands of Moroccans put under surveillance by authorities after the Casablanca bombings, the Moroccan official said.
In an indictment issued last September, Zougam also was described as a "follower" of Imad Yarkas, the alleged leader of Spain's al-Qadeda cell who was jailed for allegedly helping plan the September 11 2001, attacks. It was the latest suggestion that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist group may have been involved in the bombings.
Yarkas, whose alias is Abu Dahdah, is in Spanish custody.
The Casablanca bombings were blamed on Salafia Jihadia, a secretive, radical Islamic group suspected of links to al-Qaeda.
Moroccan security experts arrived in Spain on Sunday to help in the investigation. Morocco's interior ministry said the experts were members of a team that has already spent nearly a year working with Spanish officials on the investigation into Casablanca's terror bombings.
A Moroccan official said Zougam was suspected of ties to international terror groups. There were no formal accusations against him, and the official did not say to which groups Zougam may be linked.
- AP