New Europe Update: “Spain: Algerian Suicide Bomber Linked to Cell,” from AKI, :
Marid, 10 Jan. (AKI) – The recruiters of an Algerian suicide bomber who investigators believe is one of those responsible for an attack in Iraq in 2003 that killed 19 Italians were among 20 people arrested on Monday in Spain on suspicion of enlisting Islamist fighters for Iraq. Spanish and Italian security forces had worked together to provide the forensic evidence linking the late Bellil Belgacem to the 2003 attack on an Italian military barracks in Nasiriya, southern Iraq, Spain’s interior minister Jose Antonio Alonso said in a statement.
The police sweep – carried out on Tuesday in the Spanish cities of Barcelona, the capital, Madrid, and Lasarte in the Basque region – netted 15 Moroccan, three Spanish, a Turkish, and an Algerian suspect, believed to belong to al-Qaeda linked cells, the interior ministry said.