Extremist tape condemns Spanish

AN al-Qaida-linked videotape threatening more attacks against Spain, singles out the incoming Socialist government for its decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.

The video was found in the rubble of a Madrid apartment where seven suspects in the bombings blew themselves up on April 3.

The Arabic-language tape was badly damaged in the explosion. In the video, three of the suicide attackers claimed responsibility for the March 11 attacks in the name of a group linked to al-Qaida and threatened more bloodshed unless Spain withdraws from Iraq and Afghanistan in a week.

The government says the tape was made on March 27. The men on the tape said they spoke in the name of "the Al Mufti Brigades and Ansar al-Qaida".

One of the sentences alludes to Socialist leader José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, due to take over as prime minister on Friday.

His party won the March 14 general elections overshadowed by the bombings, which killed 191 and wounded more than 1,800.

"Your new ruler has begun his mandate with more fighting against Muslims and sending more crusade troops to Afghanistan."

In another newly-released sentence, the reader says: "We will treat you brutally. We will kill you. We will you bring war to your homes, and you will not be able to sleep at night."

Future defence minister Jose Bono said through an aide on March 29 that Spain will double its troop contingent in Afghanistan to 250 in August.

Three more suspects have been arrested taking the number in custody to 24.

Court officials identified two Moroccans arrested yesterday in Malaga as Abdelghafour Abderrazzak and Mohamed El Barrouchi.

The Interior Ministry said a third north African had also been arrested in Malaga.

Eighteen people, 14 of them Moroccan, have been charged in connection with the bombings. Six have been charged with mass murder.

The government says the focus of its probe is the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, an al-Qaida- linked group also related to a group blamed for last year's Casablanca suicide bombings which killed 45.

Spanish authorities say the core members of the Madrid cell are either jailed or were among the suspects who blew themselves up. At least six more prime suspects are still being sought.