Spain on highest ever terror alert ahead of Easter week holiday rush
Soldiers toting automatic rifles are guarding long-distance and commuter train lines, reservoirs, nuclear power plants and petrochemical installations.
Soldiers on motorcycles are riding along train tracks, checking for explosives.
A bomb was found and defused last Friday on a high-speed line between Madrid and Seville.
A statement from a group linked to al-Qaida sent to a Spanish newspaper said the bomb was placed just as a warning of the havoc the group could wreak.
The group said it would turn Spain into "an inferno" unless it withdrew its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Spain has 1,300 troops in the former and 125 in the latter.
ABC newspaper said the letter was hand-written in Arabic and signed Abu Dujana Al Afgani, Ansar Group, al-Qaida in Europe.
A prosecutor has requested up to four more international arrest warrants in the hunt for the Madrid train bombers, court officials said today.
National Court Judge Juan del Olmo, who last week issued a similar warrant for six prime suspects, is expected to accept prosecutor Olga Sanchez's request over the next few days, the officials said.
The government said three of the latter fugitives were among at least six terrorists who blew themselves up on Saturday night as special forces prepared to storm their apartment in Leganes, south of Madrid.
Officials say they included alleged ringleader Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet of Tunisia and Moroccan Jamal Ahmidan, described as his right-hand man.
Court officials also said the latest suspect to be arrested will appear before Del Olmo tomorrow.
The arrest came on Saturday in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the coast of Morocco, and raised to 16 the number of people in custody. Six have been charged with mass murder, and the rest with belonging to or collaborating with a terrorist organisation. Eleven of the 16 are Moroccan.
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