Morocco tells Spain 400 Islamic fighters on the run Agence France Presse

Morocco tells Spain 400 Islamic fighters on the run
Agence France Presse -- English - July 25, 2004 Sunday

MADRID, July 25 - Morocco has told Spain that 600 of the north African country's citizens have trained at Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya, and that nothing is known about the whereabouts of 400 of them, the newspaper El Pais said Sunday.

It said the information was given to anti-terrorist judge Baltasar Garzon, who is investigating the attacks on four suburban trains in Madrid March 11, which killed 191 people and injured 1,900 others.

Of the 19 people arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attacks, most are Moroccan citizens.

El Pais said Garzon was informed early this month that of the Moroccans known to have trained with Al-Qaeda, only 200 were "under control."

However Garzon later told the parliamentary commission investigating the attacks that between 900 and 1,000 people belonged to militant Islamic cells in Morocco.

"I think it represents one of the worst risks with which Europe is confronted," he said, in a statement that stirred controversy in Morocco.

Garzon later explained the discrepancy in the figures by telling Moroccan 2M TV that not all these groups were necessarily in Morocco. Many could be in Spain or in the rest of Europe, he said.