DAR AL HARB - SPAIN: AL ANDALUS, AGAIN

Spain fears Islamists reclaiming "al-Andalus"
By Sinikka Tarvainen
dpa German Press Agency

Madrid- While the international spotlight is on 29 suspectson trial for the 2004 Madrid train bombings, Spanish police areworking behind the scenes to counter a growing threat of new attacks.Radicals inspired by al-Qaeda have stepped up propaganda andrecruitment activities in Spain, a country they claim as a part ofthe Islamic world because of its Muslim past, according to policeexperts.

Extremists present in Spain no longer come just from North Africa,but also from Pakistan.

Spain has become one of the main bases for the recruitment ofsuicide bombers, some of whom are trained at new al-Qaeda bases inAfrica's Sahel zone before they are sent to Iraq.

The ongoing Madrid bombings trial has given a face to Islamistterrorism as Spaniards have watched one suspect after another takethe stand, from bearded fundamentalists to young men with anapparently Western lifestyle.

After questioning the suspects, the court is currently hearingpolice experts and other witnesses.

Ten bombs that exploded on four Madrid commuter trains killed 191and injured nearly 2,000 people in March 2004, suddenly placingIslamists on top of the security agenda, ahead of the armed Basqueseparatist group ETA.

Two groups are suspected of involvement in the attacks: theMoroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM) and the extremely radical Tafkir Wal Hijra, which is of Egyptian origin.

Such groups do not form part of a hierarchical structure, but heedmessages emanating from al-Qaeda and act on their own.

Arab activists are believed to cooperate with Pakistanis makingmoney transfers on their behalf.Pakistani radicals are active especially in the north-eastern Catalonia region, where police have detected the presence of Asiangroups such as the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET).

The JEM has been implicated in the 2005 bombings in the Londontransport network, while the LET is linked with attacks in India.Police are investigating whether the Arabs and Pakistanis havecontacts with Chechen Muslims, large numbers of whom reportedlyarrived in Spain in 2006.

Islamist radicals proselytize at an estimated 10 per cent ofSpain's hundreds of unofficial mosques, which operate in garages,basements and the like.

Fighters recruited in Spain are no longer trained only in Iraq andAfghanistan, but also in Sahel countries such as Mali, Niger and Mauritania, where al-Qaeda and its allies teach them to handleweapons, explosives and even poisons, according to the daily El Pais.

The young men then travel to conflict zones such as Iraq, whereone of the Madrid train bombers is believed to have died in a suicideattack in 2005.

Those who are not killed in Iraq or are unable to enter thecountry sometimes return to Spain, where they constitute one of thepotentially most dangerous groups, according to police sources.

The Madrid bombers targeted Spain partly to punish the thengovernment for its participation in the Iraq war.

Spain has changed its Atlanticist foreign policy since then, but the presence of its troops in Afghanistan and its judicial crackdowns on Islamists keep it on al-Qaeda-inspired hit lists.

Islamist websites have also long called for a reconquest of al-Andalus, a Moorish name for Spain, parts of which were ruled byMuslims for nearly eight centuries until 1492.

Recently, some websites have also begun campaigning for the"liberation" of the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on theMoroccan coast, causing concern among police experts.

They should permit more moslem immigrants to settle in Spain and across Europe...They will get their 'utopia'...

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