Posted on 06/08/2004 4:53:44 AM PDT by Nasty McPhilthy
By Emilio Parodi and Clara Ferreira-Marques MILAN, Italy (Reuters) - Italy arrested an Egyptian man considered to be a mastermind of the Madrid train bombings in the first Europe-wide swoop on Islamic militants linked to the March attack, judicial sources said Tuesday.
Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said militants had been planning more attacks as police swooped as part of an operation across Europe. He said the swoop was aimed at a group "close to al Qaeda."
Police in Milan arrested Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian," and another man as part of cross-border raids into the March 11 bombings that killed 191 people in the Spanish capital, the judicial sources said.
Ahmed was considered "one of the masterminds" of the Madrid bombings, a Spanish Interior Ministry spokesman said.
He has been linked to a Tunisian man, now dead, whom investigators identified as the ringleader of the suspected Islamic militants behind the attacks, the spokesman added.
A Madrid court will now seek the extradition of the 32-year-old Egyptian, a court official said.
Police in northern Italy, France, Spain and Belgium took part in the coordinated raids, Italian judicial sources said.
"Raids are under way in Belgium, Spain and France as well as in Italy," an Italian judicial source said. Another judicial source said: "It is coordinated at the European level."
Italian police were acting on an arrest warrant when they seized Ahmed late Monday. High Court Judge Juan del Olmo, who has been leading the probe into the train attacks, issued the warrant Monday.
"I know that there has been an arrest for which we should congratulate the Italian police and all the police who have worked with the Italians," Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso told reporters.
"Mohamed the Egyptian" was seized after a three-month probe by Italy's anti-terrorist unit and Italian intelligence and he was thought to be the head of a Moroccan radical Islamist cell, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said. Continued ...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Apparently they arrested something like 6 people in Belgium, too.
A report that I read earlier said that "The Egyptian" and his buddies were in the process of planning another attack very soon in some part of Europe, possibly Italy.
Europe is full of Islamic terrorists, but so far, except in the case of Madrid, the police have managed to get them before they do much damage. I hope their luck holds.
BRAVO ITALIA!
now send this pos to palermo for some sicialian interogation.
I am shocked, I tell you.
"Sorry, I didn't get your name. What was it?
"Pisanu!"
"Well, you don't have to get nasty about it!"
Gee, I hope they didn't use any racial profiling in the investigation. I hope Christians and Jews were considered equally in the search for these terrorists.
Johnny Cochran: "They didn't check Jews, so my client can't lose"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.