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“Spanish Police Arrest 14 in anti-terror raids”
(AFP)
19 January 2008

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “MADRID - Spanish police have smashed a suspected Islamist terror cell, arresting 14 people and recovering bomb-making equipment in overnight raids in Barcelona, the interior minister said on Saturday.

‘During our searches, we found various materials which could be explosives or be used to make explosives,’ Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told a press conference in Madrid.

Those arrested included 12 Pakistanis and two Indians, he said. Four timing devices as well as computer equipment which was still being examined were also recovered.

He said that the group could be characterised as ‘radical Islamist’, was ‘highly organised’ and was preparing to carry out an attack in the north-eastern Spanish city.

The operation, which saw five homes raided by police, was carried out on the basis of information gathered by Spain’s domestic and foreign intelligence agencies.

The intelligence suggested ‘the possibility that a terrorist action was being prepared on Spanish soil, in Barcelona to be precise,’ Rubalcaba said.”

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7197562.stm

Last Updated: Saturday, 19 January 2008, 17:36 GMT

“Spain arrests 14 terror suspects”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Bomb-related material has been found during raids in Barcelona which led to the arrest of 14 people suspected of links with an Islamist terror network.

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the suspects included 12 from Pakistan and two from India.

Local media reports that the Spanish intelligence agency had warned France, the UK and Portugal that a terror cell was preparing an imminent attack.

This coincides with a European tour by Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf.”

Adding on to your post #765:

Spain alerts Britain after foiling bomb plot on eve of Musharraf visit
January 20, 2008

SPANISH police say they have foiled an attempt by Islamic extremists to carry out bomb attacks coinciding with a state visit to Europe by Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan. It was reported that other European countries, including Britain, had been put on alert by the Spanish for the possibility of terror attacks.

Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, the Spanish interior minister, said that five homes and a mosque in central Barcelona had been raided and a quantity of bomb-making material had been seized, including four detonators. Twelve Pakistanis and two Indians were arrested on Friday. Rubalcaba said police acted on a tip-off from “another secret service” and discovered that some of those detained were about to purchase explosives.

The arrests were made just days before a visit to Europe this week by Musharraf. He is due to go to France and the UK and attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The minister said that he could not reveal more about the police operation which was continuing but the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), the Spanish secret service, had warned at least four other European countries to prepare for “imminent attacks”.

A source at the CNI told El Pais, the Spanish newspaper, that the countries facing the immediate threat were France, Britain and Portugal.

The same source said police had found triacetone triperoxide in the Barcelona raids. This is a cheap form of explosive used by suicide bombers in the Middle East. It was used by Richard Reid, the thwarted British shoe bomber. The main concern was that it appeared that an unknown quantity of the explosive had been removed before the raids. “We are facing a well organised group that had moved a stage further than just being radicals,” the minister said.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3216714.ece