Moroccan among four suspected Islamic militants arrested in Spain

Amer Azizi, a Spaniard of Moroccan origin, wanted for his role in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and in the Madrid train bombings, is among the four men arrested by Spanish police on suspicion of links to Islamic militant cells that planned to blow up the High Court and Real Madrid's Bernabeu soccer stadium, the Interior Ministry announced.

"These men were part of a group of people who were forming a cell of radical activists, potentially dangerous to the security of the state," Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso told reporters on Tuesday. "One of them has links with the March 11 attacks," Alonso said, referring to the Madrid train bombs that killed 191 people and wounded 1,900.

Three of the men, all Algerians, were connected to a Salafist cell dismantled last year in Spain. These are: Sai Abdelkader Lebik, alias Hamou Lebik, Abdallah Ibn Moutalib Kaddouri, and Brahim Amman.

The arrests were made as part of Operation Nova, launched October 18 and which has so far enabled to put in prison 33 people.