Spain yesterday said five suspected Islamic militants arrested on Friday were believed to have helped finance Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. The Interior Ministry did not say whether they were linked to the truck bombing of a synagogue in Tunisia last year — an attack claimed by Al Qaeda in which some 20 people were killed. Spain currently holds 40 Al Qaeda suspects, detained since the September 11, 2001 hijacked airliner attacks on the United States which Washington blames on the group. Court sources said the suspects were believed to have played a role in the bombing of the El Ghriba synagogue on the southern Tunisian island of Djerba last April. Fourteen German tourists were among those killed. The Interior Ministry said the suspects were also believed to have helped deploy and hide members of Al Qaeda. Civil Guard agents on Friday arrested four Spanish citizens in an operation assisted by French and German police and investigators from Tunisia, the US, Switzerland and Portugal. The fifth suspect detained was a junior Arab Pakistani national. |