Spain ignored terror attack warning - report

Spanish intelligence agents warned police last November that an Algerian now identified as a ringleader of the Madrid train bombings was preparing an attack, a newspaper claimed today.

The agents asked the Interior Ministry for urgent help in locating the suspect, Allekema Lamari, who had served jail time in Spain on terrorism charges and was considered dangerous. But the ministry did not heed the warning, El Pais said.

The newspaper quoted sources close to Spain’s National Intelligence Centre.

“We knew he was preparing something big, but not his target or when, although signs were it would be in December 2003 or January of this year,” a source close to the CNI said.

The Interior Ministry and Spanish police declined to comment on the report.

The March 11 bombings killed 191 people and have been blamed on Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida.

El Pais said that on March 6, five days before the Madrid train bombings, the intelligence centre issued a report to the then-conservative government warning that Lamari had vanished from Lavapies, a Madrid neighbourhood with a large Muslim population.

Several Moroccans later arrested in connection with the bombings also lived in Lavapies.

Five days after the attack, agents asked that Lamari’s photo be released to police nationwide, but the government did not act on this either, the newspaper said.