Spain Reels In 3 al-Qaeda Suspects, Finds Explosives

Nabbed in Spain yesterday: three suspected al-Qaeda members who had managed to amass a wealth of explosives and may have been plotting European attacks. Police today announced that a Turk was detained in La Linea, where authorities found enough explosive material in a house there to blow up a bus. A Russian and Chechen who had been in the country about two months were also arrested in Ciudad Real while on a bus, possibly bound for the French border, reports the AP.

"Police moved to arrest them when it became known that they planned to leave Spain," said the country's interior minister, who called the busts "one of the most important operations carried out against al-Qaeda," and ones performed in close collaboration with intelligence services from "Spain's allies." He called the Turk a facilitator, and said the other two were suspected al-Qaeda operatives: one an explosives and poisons expert and both with experience flying in light aircraft. (More Spain stories.)