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| Europe |
| More GSPC rolled up in Spain |
| 2005-12-12 |
| Police have arrested seven suspected Islamist terrorists accused of financing an Algerian arm of Al Qa'ida in raids on apartments and chalets on Spain's southern Costa del Sol, Interior Minister José Antonio Alonso said Friday. The seven suspects - six men and a woman - are all Algerian nationals linked to a branch of the Algerian-based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) run by Abu Al Haikan. Counterterrorism experts fear Al Haikan is planning to commit attacks in Europe, but Alonso stressed yesterday that police have uncovered no evidence that the seven suspects were preparing attacks in Spain. "There are no indications that they were planning imminent attacks," the interior minister told journalists. "They formed a well structured and hierarchical group dedicated to providing financial and logistical support to the terrorist organization." According to police, the cell was involved in burglaries from luxury chalets along the Costa del Sol, car theft and credit card fraud, and would use the proceeds to finance the GSPC. Raids on 12 apartments and chalets used by the group - many of them in wealthy areas of resorts such as Marbella and Torremolinos - uncovered large sums of money, documents in Arabic about waging jihad and false credit cards, as well as apparently stolen watches and jewelry. The money, investigators said, would be sent to Algeria either via a "complex network" of bank transfers or by hand. Alonso described the cell as a "twin" of a similar group of 10 Algerians who were arrested in Alicante, Murcia and Granada last month on similar charges, although he noted that there is no evidence of contact between them. Since the March 11 train bombings last year, 205 suspected Islamist terrorists have been arrested in Spain, including those detained yesterday, and 104 are in prison. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |