UK and Spain arrest terror suspects
Spanish police have cracked a cell of militant Muslim activists tied to the network of Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the suicide attacks on the United States, officials said today.
The six Algerians held last night and this morning had trained in camps in Afghanistan, where the US believes bin Laden is hiding, the officials said today.
Meanwhile in Britain, three men arrested in Leicester on terrorism charges have been linked with plans to launch a wave of attacks in France and Belgium.
They were not arrested in connection with the September 11 attacks, a police spokesman said.
Officers from Britain's Anti-Terrorism branch have been given two extra days to question two men arrested in London on Friday in connection with the hijacked planes which crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington killing thousands.
Two other people were released without charge.
The six held in Spain were members of an Algerian rebel faction Daawa Wal Jihad (Appeal and Struggle Salafist Group) which is understood to have close links to bin Laden, Spain's Interior Minister Mr Mariano Rajoy said today.
"Behind this network and these groups is the organisation of the renowned Islamic terrorist Osama bin Laden which gives them financial support, organises training of their members in camps he controls in Afghanistan and, when he sees the need, gives them targets," the Ministry said in a statement.
The arrests followed a two-year investigation aided by police from Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, which had been involved in planning the raids.
Mr Rajoy said the Algerians had links with two other suspected members of bin Laden's group who were arrested in Belgium and the Netherlands on September 13 and who had planned to carry out suicide attacks against U.S. interests in Europe.
Meanwhile a British police spokesman could not confirm the identities of the three men arrested in Leicester. Newspapers said they were Algerian.
The men, aged 29, 35 and one in his mid-20s, were being questioned and their homes had been searched for further evidence, police said.