Spanish police investigating the Madrid train bombings arrested a suspect Tuesday, just as the country began events to commemorate the first anniversary of the March 11 attacks that killed 191 people, officials said. Spain's Interior Ministry said Moroccan-born Jaouad el Bouzrouti, 21, had close links to several prime suspects for the attacks, in which 10 bombs hidden in sports bags exploded aboard four packed commuter trains. Bouzrouti was arrested near his home in the Madrid suburb of Fuenlabrada in the early morning. He is the 75th suspect arrested in the investigation, although 33 of those have been released for lack of evidence. The Interior Ministry said the suspect was "directly linked" to Yousef Belhadj, recently arrested in Belgium and sought for extradition to Spain. Belhadj is believed to have been the spokesman on a video tape that claimed responsibility for the bombings in the name of al Qaeda in Europe, calling them revenge for Spain's having sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. The ministry also said Bouzrouti was a "close collaborator" of Algerian Allekama Lamari, one of the seven train bombings suspects who blew themselves up when surrounded by police on April 3. He also was considered close to Mohamed Afalah and Abdelmajib Bouchar, two Moroccan suspects who escaped from the suburban Madrid safe house on the night of the suicide blast. Both are the subject of international arrest warrants. Lamari and Afalah traveled frequently in Bouzrouti's car, the ministry statement said.
"The suspect had telephone contacts with ... Bouchar and with the brothers Yousef and Mimoun Belhadj, members of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group who were recently detained in Belgium and Syria," the statement said. Spanish authorities have identified many of the train bombing suspects as belonging to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, a shadowy armed group sympathetic to international jihad. Spain is preparing to mark Friday's anniversary of the attacks with solemn commemorations and a conference of international security experts. Political parties have been unable to agree on a set of conclusions about what happened on March 11, 2004 and recommendations to prevent future attacks, following months of testimony to a special parliamentary committee.