Spain arrests two al Qaeda suspects in Barcelona

MADRID, June 26 (Reuters) Spanish police today arrested two Moroccans suspected of having links to al Qaeda and recruiting people to send to training camps in Africa.

Police said in a statement they had detained Mohamed Laksir, 23, and Moulay Lahoucine Miftah Idrissi, 27, in Barcelona under international warrants lodged by Moroccan authorities, who want them extradited.

The Spanish police said the two men were linked to al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

Police said the pair were suspected of recruiting people and indoctrinating them with radical Islamic ideas in order to send them to training camps in the Sahel region.

Since the mainly Algerian GSPC rebranded itself in January as al Qaeda's North African arm, counter-terrorism officials have warned it might expand its ambitions to include parts of Europe as well.

France's top anti-terrorism investigator Jean-Louis Bruguiere told Reuters in an interview this month he was concerned the group might try to extend its network into France, Spain and Italy, which have large North African communities.

Nine suspected members of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb were arrested in an Italian police operation on June seven to smash what they called a cell for funding and recruiting.

Spain has launched several major investigations into al Qaeda activity and is currently trying 29 people over the 2004 Madrid train bombings which killed 191 people.

REUTERS GL RAI2118