As the Spanish government all but dropped its claims on Monday that the Madrid train bombings were probably the work of Basque separatists, senior counterterrorism officials in the United States said they were increasingly convinced that Islamic militants were behind the attacks. American intelligence and law enforcement officials said they had still not produced an official government assessment of who was behind the bombings. Nor, one intelligence official said, had the United States obtained any communication intercepts that might indicate who was responsible. But from the nature of the bombings and the known ties of some of the initial suspects arrested by Spanish authorities, American officials said they believed that the attack might fit a new model in which local Islamic extremist groups, perhaps only loosely affiliated with Al Qaeda, might carry out attacks without the direct coordination of Qaeda leaders. Full Story
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