Spain Holds Five in Connection with Tunisia Bombing

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain arrested five suspected Islamic extremists on Friday in what court sources said was a swoop linked to a synagogue truck bombing in Tunisia last year in which some 20 people died.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the bombing of the El Ghriba synagogue on the southern Tunisian island of Djerba on April 11. Fourteen German tourists were among those killed.

The Spanish Interior Ministry said police arrested four of the suspects near the Mediterranean port city of Valencia and the fifth in the northern town of Logrono in the Rioja region.

Police searched the homes of the suspects and confiscated documents and other items, a ministry spokesman said.

A Madrid judge ordered the arrests at the request of Spanish and French authorities, the court sources said.

Two of the four arrested near Valencia were Spanish shopkeepers, the sources said. The suspect arrested in Logrono was a Pakistani who operated a shop offering low-fee telephone calls, they said.

In January, Spain arrested 16 people in the northeastern region of Catalonia at France's request who were suspected of having links to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network. They are still being held.

Nineteen other suspected Islamic militants alleged to have al Qaeda links have been arrested in Spain since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Mohammed Atta, alleged leader of the suicide hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks, was known to have traveled extensively in Spain before the attacks.

Five held over Tunisia bombing

Spanish police detain a suspected Islamic militant in Valencia

The men were arrested after a request from French authorities

Police in Spain have arrested five men suspected of being involved in the attack on a synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba last year, in which 21 people died.

Spanish officials say four of the men were arrested in the south-western city of Valencia, and the fifth in the northern town of Logrono in the Rioja region.

Police searched the homes of the suspects and confiscated documents and other items, a Spanish interior ministry spokesman said.

Al-Qaeda was reported last year to have claimed responsibility for the truck bombing of the El Ghriba synagogue, in which 14 German and two French citizens were killed.

Reports say Spanish judge Ismael Moreno ordered the arrests after a request from French authorities investigating the attack in Djerba.

France's top anti-terror judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, opened his own investigation into the attack after the son of one of the victims filed a complaint in a French court.

France also wants to question the alleged senior al-Qaeda operative captured in Pakistan last weekend, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, about the bombing.

Sheikh Mohammed is believed to have given the order by satellite telephone to the suspect who carried out the attack, French judicial officials said earlier this week in Paris.

Previous arrests

Saturday's arrests follow the detention in late January of 16 men in Spain's north-eastern region of Catalonia for alleged links to al-Qaeda.

Those arrests were also made using information from French authorities.

So far reports say the only crime committed by those men, who are still in police custody, is forging identity cards.

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