Spanish authorities arrested 11 persons, suspected to have links to al-Qaida
Regional-Spain, Politics, 11/15/2001

The Spanish authorities have announced it arrested 11 persons on Tuesday under suspicion that they have links to al-Qaida organization led by Osama Bin Laden.

New reports quoted the Spanish minister of the Interior as saying to the press that the police in Madrid arrested 10 men who are considered the leading figures of the Spanish organization in the " al-Mujahideen movement" which is part of Osama Bin Laden network, while another suspect was arrested in the southern Granada city and the police confiscated false documents, video tapes and machine -guns.

In a press statement, the Spanish ministry of the Interior said the leader of this group which was arrested on Monday is a Spanish of an Arab origin and is called Imad eddine Barakat Yarbas, better known as " Abu al-Dahdah" and he used to be considered Bin laden's representative in Spain.

The statement added that other members of the group are mostly Spanish people of Muslim states origin.

The statement added that Abu al-Dahdad used to have several links with renowned Islamists extremists in Europe, noting that he was in contact with a " cell" in Algeria discovered in Spain on September 26.

The Spanish ministry added that the suspected persons were either trained in terrorist camps in Afghanistan or witnessed battles in Afghanistan or Bosnia or other fronts in Islamic struggle.

Spain has also arrested one of Bin Laden's aides in June and rumors claimed that one of the leader of the cell which carried out the September 11 attacks against the US had visited Spain repeatedly in July.

The Spanish ministry said that the activities the group used to conduct were recruiting members to take part in the training camps and then carry out terrorist acts.

However, these arrests came after two years of investigations and two weeks from September 11 attacks. Spain arrested 6 Algerians accusing them of belonging to " al-Dawa and al-Jihad " group which has Algiers as a headquarters and is part of al-Qaida network..

Muhammad Atta al-Masri who presumed to strike one of the high-jacked planes into the World Trade center had traveled 2000 kilometers in his rent car within two weeks in July when he met with other suspected extremists in Spain.

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