This is the man police believe is the Madrid massacre mastermind

THIS is the man Spanish police suspect is the mastermind behind the bombings which killed 201 people and injured more than 1,400 in Madrid last Thursday.

Jamal Zougam is one of three Moroccans arrested in Madrid for their alleged roles in the March 11 terrorist attacks. He is one of six Moroccans who have been identified as the perpetrators of the attacks. They are believed to belong to the al-Qaida-linkedMoroccon Islamic Combatant Group (GICM).

The 30-year-old Moroccan is the prime suspect in the attacks and was still being questioned last night.

Spanish police believe a group of Moroccans carried out the Madrid rail massacre and have established a definite link between Zougam and GICM.

Zougam was the proprietor of a small telephone call centre in the Madrid district of Lavapies.

The photograph on the left shows him in the company of three police officers who took him back to the call centre at midnight on Saturday, after his arrest, and searched the premises until 4am.

Jean-Charles Brisard, a French investigator working with Spanish police in the investigations, said the Salafia Jihadia, a Morocco-based group, is thought to be also linked to theattacks in Madrid.

Mr Brisard said a direct link has been found between Zougam and the militant organisation’s spiritual leader, Mohammed Fizazi.

Zougam met with Fizazi in August 2001 and may have also been in contact with an al-Qaida cell in Spain that is believed to have assisted in the financing and organising of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The leader of that al-Qaida cell, Imad Yarkas, was jailed for his role in the September 11 attacks. In a taped phone call with Yarkas, Zougam said he had met Fizazi. Fizazi was sentenced in Morocco last August along with 87 others for the 13 suicide bombings and attempted bombings in Casablanca last May that killed 43 people.

Zougam, together with the other two arrested suspects, has also been linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian implicated in terrorist attacks in Jordan, Iraq and Afghanistan.

People in Lavapies, where Zougam also lived, expressed surprise and shock yesterday at his arrest and his alleged role in the Madrid massacre.

“He was a very friendly person who would always say hello and smile,” one neighbour told the Spanish daily El País.

“You would never imagine that he could have been arrested for involvement in the attacks,” said the woman who works at the bakery, located next door to Zougam’s call centre.

Locals say his call centre, which was opened three years ago, was one of the busiest in the area.

The other two Moroccans being detained are Zougam’s half-brother Mohammed Chaoui and Mohammed Bekkali. They were arrested on Saturday night with Zougam. Five other Moroccan suspects have been identified by Spanish police.

Meanwhile, the terror fear spread to France last night where the Justice Ministry revealed a threat to the nation had been made by a radical Islamic group. The group identified itself as the Servants of Allah the Powerful and Wise, the ministry said.

The nature of the threats was not immediately disclosed.

Le Parisien newspaper received a fax from the group, threatening attacks.

In the past weeks, French authorities have received terror threats from another little-known group, AZF.