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U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Terrorism 2004 - Spain

Spain remained a strong ally in the global war against terrorism and suffered a massive terrorist attack in March, when Islamic extremists attacked commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 and wounding hundreds of others.

On the morning of March 11, 2004, terrorists detonated bombs on commuter trains, including five near Atocha, the city's biggest train station. Police discovered that extremists associated with the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), most of them North African residents of Spain, had carried out the attacks. On April 2, authorities located an explosive device under the high-speed railway connecting Madrid and Seville that failed to detonate. On April 3, seven suspects sought by police in connection with the March 11 bombings detonated explosives in an apartment in a Madrid suburb in order to avoid arrest. All seven suspects and one police officer were killed in the explosion. Authorities are holding approximately two dozen individuals in connection with the March 11 bombings. Those charged in the case are pending trial on charges of murder and belonging to a terrorist organization.

Spain has arrested and indicted scores of individuals with possible links to al-Qa'ida since September 11. In November, Spanish police arrested more than 30 suspected members of a radical Islamic organization, disrupting apparent plans to bomb Spain's High Court, Madrid's largest soccer stadium, the headquarters of the opposition Popular Party, an office building, and other public landmarks. Spain requested the extradition from Switzerland of Mohamed Achraf, the alleged leader of this terrorist conspiracy, also known as "Mikael Etienne Christian Lefevre." Extradition was authorized in January 2005 by the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, and in April 2005, Achraf's appeal against extradition was denied. In May, a Spanish judge ordered the detention of three Algerian nationals and one Spanish national for their ties to an al-Qa'ida cell in Hamburg, Germany. Police in Barcelona arrested ten Pakistani nationals suspected of providing logistical and financial support to Islamic extremist groups outside of Spain. At the time of their arrest, Spanish officials explicitly said these individuals were not known to be linked to al-Qa'ida. On December 17, Spanish police arrested Moroccan national Hassan El Haski and three other members of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group in the Canary Islands on charges of participating in the March 11 train bombings.

Spain has had some success in prosecuting terrorism cases. In November, a Spanish judge issued the first sentence connected to the March 11 train bombings, sentencing a 16-year-old male to six years in a juvenile prison facility and five years probation for helping the conspirators obtain the explosives used in the blasts. In November, a judge ordered the detention of an al-Jazeera television network journalist with alleged ties to the Spain-based al-Qa'ida network of Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas. The journalist had been released on bail in 2003 for health reasons. The trial of 24 suspects charged in the Barakat Yarkas case is scheduled to begin in April 2005. The prosecutor is requesting 25-year prison terms for each victim of the 9/11 attacks for several members of the Barakat Yarkas cell.

Spain scored significant successes in its decades-old campaign to eliminate domestic terrorist groups, including the Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) organization, a radical terrorist group. Spanish police arrested more than 70 individuals in 2004 for association with or membership in ETA and dismantled several ETA operational terrorist cells, dealing a blow to ETA's logistic, recruitment, and operational capabilities. In October, a joint French-Span-ish investigation led to the arrest in France of high-ranking ETA terrorists Mikel Antza and Soledad Iparragirre. Antza was the leader of ETA at the time of his arrest and Iparragirre was sought in connection with 14 murders. ETA carried out a series of bombings of tourist areas during the summer and detonated 12 bombs on December 3 and 6 in Madrid and eight other cities, resulting in minor injuries to approximately a dozen people. Spanish and French authorities also made joint advances against the domestic terrorist group First of October Antifascist Resistance Group, all but eliminating the group.

US Attorney General John Ashcroft visited Spain on December 17 to sign the bilateral protocols to the US-EU Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty and Extradition Agreement, deepening bilateral judicial cooperation. In December, Spain signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the US Department of Energy for the installation of nuclear material detectors at the port of Algeciras. Spain is also cooperating with the Department of Homeland Security on the Container Security Initiative to scan containers bound from Algeciras to the United States for hazardous materials. Spain led the effort in the EU to approve the EU-wide common arrest and detention order, which the EU approved in late 2001. Spain co-chairs with the United States the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Terrorism Finance Working Group and is pressing to become a standing member of the G8's Counterterrorism Action Group on the basis of its high level of technical counterterrorism assistance to third countries.

Topics: Terrorism,