Author: AKI
Publication: Adnkronos International
Date: March 10, 2006
URL: http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.274473231&par=0
Almost two years to the day since al-Qaeda
linked bombers killed 191 passengers and injured almost 1,000 in devastating
train bombings the Spanish capital on 11 March, 2004, it has emerged that
the bombers had planned to carry out further attacks in Spain, according to
disclosures published on Friday in the Spanish daily, ABC.
A particuarly disturbing relevation in the
ABC report is that other terrorist attacks were planned on Spanish soil. Investigators
reportedly found details of planned attacks by the Madrid cell on the computer
of one of the bombing suspects, Jamal Ahmidan, known as 'the Chinaman'. Among
the cell's possible future targets were an English school in Madrid, and the
Avila and Toledo synagogues, ABC reported.
Investigators found a kind of manual on how
to organise a terrorist group that Ahmidan had downloaded onto his computer
one week after the deadly attacks from an 'online al-Battar training camp'
based in Saudi Arabia. The 'instructions' received by Ahmidan included how
to form a terror command structure in a large city.
The manual contains information on the composition
of an al-Qaeda cell. This needs to be made up of five groups: the leadership,
information and logistics staff, operatives who carry out attacks, and financial
officers. Only the leadership of a cell can know the objective of an attacks,
according to the manual.
Just a few days after Ahmidan downloaded the
manual, police found 12 kilogrammes of explosives near Toledo, on the tracks
of the high-speed Madrid-Seville express train.
Ahmidan and several other Madrid train bombing suspects blew themselves up
in a flat in a Madrid suburb when police moved in to arrest them three weeks
after the bombings. A police special operations officer was killed and 18
police officers were injured in the blast.
The second anniversary of the Madrid train
bombings will be marked in a low-key climate, with little pomp and ceremony
- at the request of relations of the victims. More than 200 of the attacks
still need medical assistance, and a further 264 need psychological help.
On Friday night prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero
and King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia will attend a memorial concert for victims
of the Madrid attacks and the 7 July 2005 bombings of the British capital
London's transport system that killed 54 and injured 700.
No bombing suspect has yet stood trial. Judge
Juan del Olmo is expected to present his first indictments in the complex
investigation by 10 April: some 30 people out of 116 suspects, many of whom
are Moroccan, are expected to be charged.
Del Olmo and the National Court have been
warned that unless the investigation is stepped up, some of the 25 defendants
currently detained might have to be released from custody before any trial
ends. Spain's 11th March Association of Terrorism Victims president, Pilar
Manjon said on Thursday she was starting legal action against del Olmo. Manjon
is angry that del Olmo has so far asked only 10 of the hundreds of victims
of the deadly attacks to testify before him.
