Burglaries in Spain financed terrorism in Africa

22 October 2008

MADRID – Burglaries committed by an Islamist group in Spain financed dozens of terrorist killings in Algeria and Mauritania, the daily El Pais reported Tuesday.

The group was part of a network established by inmates at a prison near Salamanca between 1999 and 2002.

The proceedings from about 20 burglaries of villas on the southern coast were channelled to the Algerian-based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

The GSPC, now known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, used the money to finance attacks, including the killings of 15 soldiers in Algeria in May 2005 and of another 15 people in Mauritania a month later.

The burglars were headed by Fathi Abdellah, known as The Pakistani, who has been arrested and charged, alongside five other people, with belonging or collaborating with a terrorist organisation.

Abdellah had first-hand information about attacks in Algeria, according to the National Court.

The Supreme Court recently lifted jail terms handed to 14 among a total of 20 people suspected of belonging to the same network and of planning attacks in Spain.

[dpa / Expatica]