Terrorists who carried out the Madrid train bombings were members of a autonomous cell who may have had ties with fundamentalists elsewhere but got their financing chiefly from drug profits, the interior minister said Wednesday.
Officials are investigating the possibility that someone with a deeper grounding in radical Islam — and perhaps terrorist training in Afghanistan or elsewhere — was the overall leader of the March 11 attacks that killed 191 people, but aren’t sure such a person even exists, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said. Acebes said the person “has been called the emir,” but would not give any other details. Spain has received a letter and a video from an al-Qaida-linked group claiming responsibility for the Madrid attacks that warned of more violence unless Spain withdraws its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. But they believe the group was largely confined to Spain and most of its members are either in custody or dead. Full Story