Reuters - Three Moroccans and two Indians were arrested in Madrid as part of the investigation into train bombings that killed 200 people, Spain's Interior Minister Angel Acebes said on Saturday. "Sixty hours after the brutal attack we now have five detentions," the minister told a news conference.
All the detentions were made "for presumed implication in the sale and falsification of the mobile phone and cards found in the bag that did not explode," Acebes said.
He was referring to a phone found in a backpack with unexploded explosives on one of the trains targeted in Thursday's attacks.
Also, two Spaniards of Indian origin were giving statements to police, he added. "This is an open investigation which is only just starting. At the moment, there is a search going on in various buildings and homes."
Acebes added: "It's the beginning of the investigation, but it opens an important path to advance down ... I give you this information with a lot of caution and prudence."
Acebes said some of those arrested may have links to Moroccan militants, but it was too early to say for sure.
RABAT (Reuters) - A Moroccan security team will travel to Spain on Sunday after the arrest of three Moroccan citizens in connection with Madrid train blasts that killed 200 people, a government spokesman said.
North Africa is home to a number of militant Islamist groups and the United States is concerned al Qaeda guerrillas could be looking for new footholds in the region.
Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said on Saturday three Moroccans and two Indians were being held on suspicion of involvement in the sale and falsification of a mobile phone and SIM card found in an unexploded bomb in a backpack on one of the trains.
It said some of those detained were possibly linked to Moroccan militants but gave no details.
"High officials from the security services will travel to Madrid tomorrow to help with the inquiry and identify the suspected Moroccan citizens," Moroccan Communications Minister and government spokesman Nabil Benabdallah told Reuters.
Investigators believe mobile phones were used to detonate 10 bombs hidden in backpacks on four trains. Two hundred people were killed and 1,500 injured in Thursday's attack.
Last May, suicide bombers attacked a Spanish restaurant, a five-star hotel and a Jewish community center in Casablanca killing 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers.
Four Spanish citizens were among those killed in Casablanca. It was not clear if Spain was the target of the restaurant attack or if, as was suggested at the trial, it was attacked because it was frequented by Westerners and Muslims drinking alcohol. Moroccan Jews were also a target in that bombing.
The government in the North African kingdom blamed a clandestine, ultra-conservative Islamist movement, the Salafist Jihad, and said some of its members had indirect links to al Qaeda. It said at the time the suicide bombers had homemade explosives stuffed into backpacks.
RABAT (Reuters) Prosecutors in the trial of Salafist members heard that videos produced by the group had made admiring references to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Salafist Jihad is organized in a loose network, incorporating largely young men, many of whom have grown up in poor neighborhoods.
The Moroccan Salafist Jihad is not registered by the United States as a terrorist organization. But a similarly named Algerian group, the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, which has pledged allegiance to al Qaeda, is.
The State Department's Patterns of Global Terrorism catalog identifies also the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM).
It says the goals of the GICM include establishing an Islamic state in Morocco and supporting al Qaeda's jihad against the West. The group comprised recruits who have trained in armed camps in Afghanistan.
A top U.S. general said recently al Qaeda cells might be seeking new havens in Africa, and Washington was talking to African states to allow its troops fast access to troublespots.
"The fact they've (al Qaeda) been there is an indicator that in the future and maybe now they intend to operate in the northern part of Africa -- both the Sahel and the Maghreb -- as well as eastern Africa," General Charles Wald, Deputy Commander of U.S. European Command (EUCOM), told Reuters recently in Ghana's capital, Accra.
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