By Geir Moulson, The Associated Press
Madrid, Spain (AP) -- European intelligence agencies scrambled Sunday to identify a purported al-Qaida operative who claimed in a videotape that the terror group bombed trains in Madrid to punish Spain’s cooperation with the United States.
In Morocco, meanwhile, authorities said one of five suspects detained in Spain in connection with the train attacks Thursday had been under surveillance for months and was suspected of ties to Islamic radicalism.
The videotape’s as yet unverified claim of responsibility and its threats of further bloodshed raised the prospect for Europe of a shadowy new enemy, way more ruthless than the Basque separatists that Spain has fought for decades.
“You love life and we love death,” said a man on the tape, which was discovered on the eve of Spain’s general elections Sunday. The man, who wore Arab dress and spoke Arabic with a Moroccan accent, said the claim of responsibility came from “the military spokesman for al-Qaida in Europe, Abu Dujan al Afghani.”
Details about the tape’s contents and a translated transcript were released by Spain’s Interior Ministry.
Intelligence agents were trying to determine who Abu Dujan al Afghani is, identify the man on the tape and establish whether his claims that al-Qaida bombed the four rush-hour trains were true.
“Up to now we have not been able to identify the person in whose name responsibility for the attack was purportedly claimed,” Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said Sunday about 12 hours after he first announced the tape’s discovery near a Madrid mosque.
“Neither the French, British nor Portuguese (intelligence) services have any knowledge of this person,” said Acebes. “Our reservations about the credibility remain.”
In France, which has long experience in combatting Islamic terrorism, an intelligence official said the name al Afghani was not known there and is likely a pseudonym. “It’s rare for people to claim responsibility for illegal acts in their own name,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he hoped the attacks that killed 200 people and injured 1,500 “will cause Europeans to rededicate themselves to going after terrorist organizations.”
But he said it was too early to say if al-Qaida was responsible.
“I don’t think we know enough,” he said. “The Spanish are very good at these kinds of investigations. And I’m sure they’ll get to the bottom of it.”
Spanish police said they would invoke the country’s anti-terrorism legislation and request five days, two more than usual, to interrogate three Moroccans and two Indians arrested Saturday in connection with the bombings.
Normally, police can hold suspects for 72 hours, after which they must be released or taken before a judge. The judge decides if they should be jailed pending further investigation; bailed or freed altogether.
One of the Moroccans had already been under surveillance since last May, when suicide bombings in Casablanca against Jewish and Spanish targets killed 33 people and 12 bombers, a Moroccan official said.
Jamal Zougam, 30, faces no formal charges in Morocco, but is suspected of having ties to the radical Islamic movement, said the high-ranking official. He did not name any organization but the Casablanca bombings were blamed on Salafia Jihadia, a secretive, radical Islamic group suspected of links to al-Qaida.
The other two Moroccan suspects, Mohamed Bekkali, 31, a mechanic, and Mohamed Chaoui, a worker, 34, have no police record at home, the official said.
Spain’s Interior Ministry identified the two Indians arrested as Vinay Kohly and Suresh Kumar.
The five were arrested after a cell phone and prepaid card were found in an explosives-filled gym bag on one of the bombed trains.
Three of the suspects had previous police or judicial records, and one was under investigation for suspected participation in murder, said Acebes, the Spanish interior minister. He earlier had said that one suspect might also have connections with Moroccan extremist groups.
Police searched five properties overnight, said Acebes.
Two Spaniards of Indian origin who also were picked up for questioning Saturday night in Madrid were not formally arrested but remained in custody on Sunday, said Acebes.
The videotape, retrieved from a trash bin Saturday night near Madrid’s largest mosque, was being analyzed at a police lab in Madrid, the Interior Ministry said. Only police, intelligence services and a judge have seen it, a spokesman added, although it may be released publicly after it has been analyzed completely.
Moroccan security experts who previously spent nearly a year working with Spanish officials on the Casablanca bombings arrived in Spain to help in the investigation.
Spanish newspapers questioned whether Spanish intelligence may have blundered in failing to foresee the attack.
If Islamic links are proven, “then there ought to be a revision of the security mechanisms, particularly in intelligence, which were incapable of detecting preparations for an attack of such magnitude,” said top selling daily El Pais.
Authorities have been tracking Islamic extremist activity in Spain since the mid-1990s and say it was an important staging ground, along with Germany, for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
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Associated Press writers John Leicester and Nicolas Marmie contributed to this report from Madrid and Rabat, Morocco.