Spain arrests 16 terror suspects

SPANISH authorities have arrested 16 suspected Islamic extremists, some linked to the bloody unrest in Iraq and others to last year’s deadly Madrid train bombings.

More than 500 police were mobilised for the swoops, which were carried out in the regions around Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Andalucia as well as in the Spanish enclave of Cueta, north of Morocco.

Eleven of the suspects “are part of an Islamic network implanted in Spain and linked to the Ansar al-Islam/Zarqawi network”, the interior ministry said yesterday, alluding to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, alleged to be the mastermind behind some of Iraq’s bloodiest violence against the US-led coalition.