By Daniel Flynn
MADRID (Reuters) - Three Moroccans detained after the Madrid train bombings were accused in court of 190 murders on Friday, but they denied any links to al Qaeda and said they were asleep at the time of the attacks.
After a grueling seven-hour overnight hearing at Madrid's High Court, the three Moroccans were also accused of 1,400 attempted murders and of belonging to a terrorist group.
Two other suspects, both Indians, were accused of cooperating with a terrorist group, court sources said.
All five suspects, arrested two days after the March 11 rail bombings that killed 202 people and wounded more than 1,800, were ordered held in solitary confinement after a court hearing that finished at 4 a.m. (10 p.m. EST, Thursday).
The attacks on four commuter trains, the bloodiest linked to al Qaeda since the Bali bombings in 2002, have been claimed by a militant Islamic group aligning itself to al Qaeda. All five suspects denied involvement in the strikes.
One of the Moroccans seen as a main suspect -- Jamal Zougam -- wept in court before returning to pray in his cell, the sources said. Another, Mohamed Bekkali, shouted he was innocent.
"They have all said that when the attack took place on March 11 they were sleeping in their respective homes," a court source said. "They say they don't have any link with al Qaeda or any terrorist organization."
There was no immediate explanation for why they were accused of 190 murders. It may relate to the number of bodies identified.
The Madrid blasts sparked a security shake-up in Europe and beyond. European Union (news - web sites) ministers agreed at emergency talks on Friday to appoint an anti-terrorism coordinator and to boost intelligence-sharing.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the intelligence chiefs of Spain, France, Britain, Germany and Italy would meet in Madrid on Monday.
VALUABLE CLUES
Zougam, his half-brother Mohamed Chaoui and Bekkali were detained at a telephone shop run by Zougam in Madrid.
Investigators have said an unexploded bomb found on one of the trains, containing a mobile phone that would have been used to activate the bomb, provided valuable clues.
The Moroccans are also accused of four "terrorist acts," presumably one for each train bombed, and stealing a vehicle.
As well as cooperating with extremists, the two Indians, Suresh Kumar and Vinay Khohy, were accused of forging documents.
Five other people were arrested on Thursday as part of the probe. Rabat has identified three of those suspects as Moroccans, its state news agency MAP said late on Friday.
The suspects were named as Abderrahim Zbakh, 33, Mohamed El Hadi Chedadi, 38, and Farid Oulad Ali, 34, MAP said.
Another suspect, who is suspected of stealing the locally made explosives, is Spanish. The nationality of the 10th suspect, who sources say is North African, is unknown.
An Algerian man was cleared on Friday of any links to the attack, High Court sources said.
Muslims at Madrid's oldest mosque where Zougam and Bekkali used to pray were shocked on Friday.
"They were normal guys, simple, straightforward," said Abdul, 51, referring to the two Moroccan suspects.
Investigators and judges are pursuing possible links between the Madrid attack and the May 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, that killed 45 people.
Anger over the government's handling of the Madrid bombings contributed to the opposition Socialists' surprise win in Spain's general election last Sunday.
CAIRO, Egypt - An Arabic newspaper published a purported claim of responsibility Friday from al-Qaida for this week's bombing of a Baghdad hotel which killed seven people and wounded 35.
The London-based newspaper, Asharq al-Awsat, reported it received an e-mail from Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj — believed to be a senior member of al-Qaida — claiming the terror group carried out Wednesday night's attack on the Mount Lebanon hotel.
"The lions of al-Qaida, who were tested in destroying the headquarters of the Russian commanders and are now in Iraq to meet their enemies, planned and executed this operation," the e-mail said.
There was no way to verify the authenticity of the claim. The Saudi-owned paper, whose main office is closed Fridays, has previously published messages from al-Ablaj, whom it identified as al-Qaida's head of training.
Al-Ablaj also goes by the alias Abu Bakr. He has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks in Turkey, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, including the November bombing of Riyadh housing compound that killed 17 people.
In Washington, a U.S. counterterrorism official said Friday that the main suspects in the Mount Lebanon hotel attack were still Ansar al-Islam and the network of Jordanian Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — both groups believed linked to al-Qaida. "It hasn't been determined who was responsible," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.