Spanish investigators have dismantled an Al Qaeda money-laundering operation allegedly run by four Spaniards and a Pakistani linked to the deadly bombing of a synagogue in Tunisia last year, authorities said Saturday. After raids Friday and early Saturday by the paramilitary Guardia Civil in the Spanish cities of Valencia and Logrono, authorities accused the suspects of using their companies to send funds to Al Qaeda operatives around the world. The four suspects in Valencia are Spanish entrepreneurs whose firms make ceramics and decorative tiles. Initial reports Friday night had described them as Tunisians. The arrests make this one of the few cases in Europe in which apparently non-Muslim, non-Arab businesspeople allegedly played a financial role in Islamic terrorist activity. The suspects in Spain allegedly helped fund a network in France, Germany and Pakistan that bombed a synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba last April, killing 21 people. Authorities say the suicide attack was ordered by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the Al Qaeda operations chief arrested in Pakistan last weekend. Full Story
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