Spain Attacks Linked To Others

An international probe into the Madrid bombings sharpened its focus Tuesday on al Qaeda terrorist cells amid reports that police have identified five new Moroccan suspects and that two Indians detained in the attack were released.

Police also arrested an Algerian who allegedly referred to the attacks in Madrid two months ago.

A French investigator, meanwhile, told The Associated Press he has found a direct link between arrested Moroccan suspect Jamal Zougam and a spiritual leader of a clandestine Moroccan extremist group suspected of involvement in suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, last year that killed 33 people and 12 bombers.

At the same time, the diplomatic and political shockwaves from the bombing continued to reverberate, with Spain's new prime minister delivering a stinging critique of the war in Iraq, and the U.S. and allies reacting to his threat to withdraw troops.

Police believe the five new Moroccan suspects took part in Thursday's train bombings, the Madrid daily El Pais reported Tuesday, without identifying the new suspects by name.

Interior Ministry spokesman Juan de Dios said he could not confirm the report.

El Pais also reported that two Indians, Vinay Kohly and Suresh Kumar, who are believed to have sold telephone cards to three arrested Moroccans, have been released. De Dios said he could not confirm the report.

The bombs were triggered by cell phones, and investigators were able to find and arrest three Moroccans and two Indians on Saturday because a cell-phone card was found in an unexploded bomb and traced.

Investigators scrambled to ascertain the scope of the clandestine operation that carried out the Madrid attacks.

A Spanish judge has identified Zougam as a follower of Imad Yarkas, the alleged leader of Spain's al Qaeda cell, who remains jailed on suspicion he helped plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

The bombings in Madrid killed 200 people and wounded 1,647 others. The attacks came just days before national elections in Spain, and may have propelled the Socialists to their upset victory.

The incoming prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, campaigned on a pledge to order Spain's 1,300 troops home, and made clear Monday he is prepared to fulfill it.

"I have said clearly in recent months that, unless there is a change in that the United Nations take control and the occupiers give up political control, the Spanish troops will come back, and the limit for their presence there is June 30," Zapatero told a news conference.

He described Spain's decision to commit peacekeepers to Iraq as "an error."

"It divided more than it united, there were no reasons for it," he said. "Time has shown that the arguments for it lacked credibility and the occupation has been managed badly."

Spain's allies in Iraq had varied reactions to the withdrawal threat. The top U.S. commander in Iraq said the coalition could continue without Spain's contribution. But Australia urged Spain not to withdraw, saying doing so would be seen by some as a "victory" for terrorists, and Poland said it has no extra troops to send to Iraq if Spain makes good on its threat. South Korea's acting President Goh Kun tightened security on Tuesday, fearing other U.S. allies could, like Spain, become terrorist targets.

A possible link between the Madrid and Casablanca attacks gained credibility Tuesday after French investigator Jean-Charles Brisard said he has found a direct link between Zougam and Mohamed Fizazi, a spiritual leader of Salafia Jihadia, which allegedly was behind the Casablanca attack and which has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network.

In a telephone call with Yarkas that Spanish police monitored in August 2001, Zougam said he had met with Fizazi, who was among 87 people sentenced in Morocco last August in a trial that centered on the Casablanca attacks. Fizazi received a 30-year sentence.

The monitored call is cited in a 600,000-page investigation led by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, who is probing the Sept. 11 attacks, Brisard told the AP. Brisard has access to Garzon's documents because he is helping with the Sept. 11 investigation for lawyers representing some of the victims' families.

The Garzon document says that in the monitored phone call, Zougam told Yarkas: "On Friday, I went to see Fizazi and I told him that if he needed money we could help him with our brothers," Brisard said.

Fizazi previously preached at a mosque in Hamburg, Germany, frequented by some of the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.

Zougam also has connections that possibly lead to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Moroccan official said. Al-Zarqawi is a key operative working with al Qaeda who has been blamed in attacks in Jordan, Iraq and elsewhere.

The other two Moroccans arrested with Zougam on Saturday are Zougam's half brother, Mohamed Chaoui, 34, and Mohamed Bekkali, 31.

The Algerian, Ali Amrous, was picked up in the northern city of San Sebastian, in the Basque region, Saturday. Police wanted to know if he had advance knowledge of Thursday's attacks.

Zougam's alleged associations to terror suspects date back more than a decade, when he was introduced to Abdelaziz Benyaich in 1993, Moroccan authorities said. Benyaich, who has dual French and Moroccan citizenship, was arrested in Spain in 2003 in connection with the Casablanca bombings.

Morocco is seeking Benyaich's extradition and claims he has had contact with al-Zarqawi, who German authorities reportedly believe was appointed by al Qaeda's leadership to arrange attacks in Europe.

Moroccan officials also believe al-Zarqawi ordered the attacks in Casablanca, and U.S. officials blamed al-Zarqawi for March 2 bombings in Iraq that killed at least 181 Shiite Muslim pilgrims. The Jordanian militant also is believed to have been behind the 2002 killing of Laurence Foley, a U.S. aid worker in Jordan.

Authorities have been tracking Islamic extremist activity in Spain since the mid-1990s and say it was an important staging ground, along with Germany, for the Sept. 11 attacks.