SPAIN: Spanish police have arrested 13 North Africans as part of an investigation into an alleged plot to bomb the Madrid High Court, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.
The arrests of the nine Algerians and four Moroccans followed a round of detentions last week to break up a suspected radical Islamic group, which authorities say formed when its members were in jail.
Two of the latest arrests were made in Madrid, two in Cadiz, and four in Valencia, the ministry said in a statement.
Five of the suspects were already being held in Spanish prisons on other charges. Officials declined to specify on what precise grounds the new detentions were made.
A prominent investigating magistrate, Judge Baltasar Garzon, had previously ordered 17 people held over an alleged plan by the "Martyrs for Morocco" group to blow up the Madrid court with a truck bomb.
The High Court is the site of the inquiry into the March 11th train bombings by suspected Islamic militants that killed 191 people.
Judge Garzon has also issued international arrest warrants for seven other people. It was not clear if any of these were among the 13 newly detained.