Second suspected al Qaida financier arrested in Spain

Spanish police have arrested a second Syrian man suspected of funding operations by Osama bin Laden’s al Qaida network.

Ghasoub al-Abrash al-Ghalyoun was detained in Madrid early yesterday.

Police said he was an associate of another Syrian man, Muhammed Galeb Kalaje Zouaydi, also known as Abu Talha, who was arrested in Madrid on Tuesday.

Zouaydi is a suspected al-Qa’ida financier and has allegedly been financially linked to members of the group throughout western Europe, including some members of the German cell believed to have organised the September 11th attacks on the US.

Elsewhere, Dutch, German and Lebanese police have all made arrests linked to alleged al-Qa’ida activities in recent days.

In the Netherlands, police arrested four Algerians suspected of membership of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, which has been linked to al-Qa’ida. In Germany, authorities detained a man suspected of being the 12th member of a Palestinian group,

Al-Tawhid, which was allegedly planning attacks on US and Israeli interests in Germany. 11 other suspected members of the group were arrested on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, police arrested a Palestinian man suspected of raising funds for the Islamic Mujahed Movement, a group close to the Lebanese-based Asbat al-Ansar, which the US State Department claims has links to al Qaida.