14 terror suspects arrested in Spain, government says
14 alleged terrorists arrested in Barcelona, Spain
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Saturday, 19, Jan 2008 12:35
Counterterrorism officers in Spain have arrested 14 suspected Islamist extremists, the country's government said today.
According to the interior ministry the raids upon properties in Barcelona were carried out by Spain's civil guard police and national intelligence centre.
Interior minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba is understood to have given notice that more arrests could take place in the coming days.
Spain's capital Madrid was the site for Europe's worst-ever Islamist terrorist attack, with 191 people dying in the train bombings of 2004 that injured almost 2,000.
Since then the country's government says more than 250 suspected terrorists have been detained, while most of the 21 people convicted over the Madrid attacks have been linked to al-Qaida cells.
Last week America's anti-terror chief warned of the growing threat posed to the US by European-based terror cells.
"One of the things we have become concerned about lately is the possibility of Europe becoming a platform for a threat against the US," said homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff.