Madrid suspects set to be quizzed
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MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Five suspects are to be quizzed in connection with last week's train bombings in Madrid, one day after a sixth suspect appeared before a Spanish judge.
The five -- three Moroccans and two Indians -- face a closed-door preliminary hearing Thursday as Spain probes Western Europe's worst terror attack, which killed 201 and injured more than 1,750 a week ago.
On Wednesday, an Algerian man, Ali Amrous, appeared before Judge Baltasar Garzon for allegedly making terrorist threats.
The judge ordered he be held for another 48 hours, so police can gather more information on him amid suspicions he may belong to the terrorist group al Qaeda.
The hearing came after Spain's prime minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero repeated a campaign pledge to withdraw the nation's troops from Iraq if coalition forces are not placed under U.N. control.
Zapatero, who swept to power after the bombings on a groundswell of support for his anti-war stance, on Wednesday rejected an appeal from President George W. Bush to stand by the United States.
"My position is the same. I have explained it throughout the election campaign," Zapatero told Onda Cero radio in an interview quoted by Reuters.
"The occupation is a fiasco. There have been almost more deaths after the war than during the war."
On Tuesday, Bush called on Spain and other allies in Iraq not to yield to pressure from al Qaeda by pulling their troops from the coalition occupying the country. (Full story)
Bush was backed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair who said Wednesday it was "hopelessly naive" to think that giving up in Iraq would lessen the threat from Islamic extremists.
"The idea that if you were to give in over the issue of Iraq that that will be the end of the matter is completely and hopelessly naive," Blair told the House of Commons.
Although he did not mention Spain explicitly, Blair's comments were seen as a reference to Zapatero.
Blair thanked Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, whose country leads a multinational brigade in Iraq, for "the steadfast position that he has taken in the war against terrorism."
Miller has said that a pullout would hand a victory to terrorists.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said Spain's policy could lead other countries to withdraw their forces, a move critics say would hand victory to the attackers.
Meanwhile the White House said it may seek a new U.N. resolution before it hands back sovereignty to Iraqis by the end of June to persuade allies such as Spain not to withdraw.
Spain's outgoing government said Wednesday it would ramp up security to protect airports, air and sea space, transport and key installations in the wake of last week's bomb attacks.
The measures are similar to others being adopted by European Union countries in response to the bomb attacks that look increasingly like the work of al Qaeda-linked militant groups.
On Wednesday, a group claiming to have links with al Qaeda said it was calling a truce in its Spanish operations to see if the new Madrid government would withdraw its troops from Iraq, a pan-Arab newspaper said.
In a statement sent to the Arabic language daily al-Hayat, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades urged its European units to stop all operations.
But the group also said its cells were ready for another attack and time was running out for allies of the United States.
The brigade, however, has dubious credibility -- having claimed responsibility in the past for attacks that it clearly did not undertake -- and its links to al Qaeda are uncertain.
Meanwhile, France -- a staunch opponent of the war -- has opened an investigation after a Paris newspaper received a letter from a Muslim group threatening spectacular attacks that would make "blood run to (its) borders."
The letter, from a previously unknown group calling itself the "Servants of Allah the Mighty and the Wise," said it planned to take action after Muslim girls were banned from wearing headscarves in schools. (Full story)
