Spain arrests six for recruiting Iraq fighters

MADRID, Oct 24 (Reuters) Spanish police have arrested six people linked to an Islamist militant cell that recruited guerrillas through the Internet to fight in Iraq, the Interior Ministry said today.

Police are searching six homes and a butcher's shop operated by members of the cell and have taken away documents and computers for examination, the Ministry said in a statement.

The arrests, in the northern province of Burgos, came a week before the verdict is due to be announced in the trial of 28 men accused of killing 191 people in train bomb attacks in Madrid in March 2004.

The cell was led by an Algerian and a Moroccan, the Ministry said. Police carried out the investigation with the help of intelligence from other countries including Sweden, the United States and Denmark.

Since the Madrid train bombings, Spanish security forces have regularly arrested Islamist militants suspected of plotting attacks in Spain or abroad.

Reuters SG GC1439