(AKI) - Spanish police have arrested at least 18 terror suspects of Moroccan origin with alleged links to Al-Qaeda in the provinces of Catalonia, Andalucia and Madrid on Thursday, reported Spanish media.The suspects helped some of the suspects in the deadly bombings of Madrid commuters in March 2004 to escape and were allegedly in charge of recruiting militants and financing Islamist activities, prosecutors allege.
The raids were carried out in the northeastern town of Santa Coloma de Gramanet where eight suspects were nabbed. The other arrests took place in the towns of Badalona near Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Valles and Villanova i la Geltru among others. The raids were ordered by top Spanish prosecutor Baltasar Garzon.
The Madrid bombings on 11 March 2004 were Europe's worst terror attack since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in Scotland. A total of 191 people were killed and 2,000 were injured when 10 rucksack bombs exploded in four crowded commuter trains.
Twenty-one people, including a number of North Africans, were sentenced to over 40,000 years in jail for their roles in the attack. It was carried out by a loosely knit group of Al-Qaeda-inspired Muslim militants and occurred three days before the country's general election.