Al-Qaida agent 'introduced' top Madrid bomb suspects
Alleged attack co-ordinator Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet of Tunisia met with al-Qaida operative Amer Azizi in Turkey to ask for fighters to stage an attack in Madrid, El Mundo said.
Azizi, a Moroccan who remains at large, was indicted on terrorism charges last September by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon as part of his probe into an al-Qaida cell he is accused of helping prepare the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
Azizi, approached by Fakhet, apparently told Fakhet he could not supply mujahedeen fighters but urged him to contact Moroccan compatriot Jamal Zougam in Madrid, the paper added, citing unidentified police officials.
Zougam is one of six people charged with mass murder in connection with the Madrid attacks, which killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800.
Fakhet was one of up to seven suspected terrorists who blew themselves up last Saturday when their apartment south of Madrid was about to be stormed by Spanish police.
Court officials say Fakhet had been campaigning among friends for a jihad in Spain since mid-2003.
The meeting in Turkey was said to have taken place in late 2002 or early 2003.
Azizi is one of at least a half dozen suspects police are searching for in relation to the train massacre.
Seventeen people, 13 of them Moroccan, have been charged in the case.
Meanwhile, a videotape found in a flat where suspected terrorists blew themselves up gives Spain a deadline to withdraw its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan or face more bloodshed.
In the video, three heavily -armed people read a statement in the name of the Al Mufti Brigades and Ansar al-Qaida, giving Spain one week to "leave Muslim lands immediately", authorities said.
A copy of the text was sent by the interior ministry to the Associated Press news agency yesterday.
"Should you not do this within the space of a week, starting today, we will continue our jihad until martyrdom," it added.
"You know that you are not safe, and you know that Bush and his administration will bring only destruction. We will kill you anywhere and in any manner," it read.
It was not clear when the video had been filmed or when the deadline would begin.
An interior ministry spokesman said the video was found in the rubble of the flat during recent searches. It was damaged in the explosion and had to be minutely analysed by police forensic experts. It has been sent to the National Court as evidence.
Spain has 1,300 troops in Iraq and 125 in Afghanistan. The incoming Socialist government has said it will withdraw the soldiers from Iraq by June 30 unless the UN takes control of the post-war occupation.
Last week, a Spanish newspaper said it received a threat from a group linked to al-Qaida saying Spain would be turned into "an inferno" unless Madrid withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
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