– LEGANES

 

On 04/03/2004, due to the intensive Toledo Railway Bomb investigation, the Spanish Police succeeded to locate in LEGANES, a suburb 16 kmsouth from the center of Madrid, 7 ofthe most wanted terroristin an apartment rented by Mohamed Belhadj, that they believed, committed the Madrid Trains Bombing attack on 03/11/2004. When thepolice closed in on their hideaway, afour store building in a residential neighborhood, at about 22:30, and called the suspects to surrender, they committed suicide and blew themselves up with the same explosives used in the Madrid Trains Bombing. 5of the offenders and a police officer were killed in the blast. Two of the terrorists managed to escape. 

The 6 killed in the blastwere:

1. Serhane Farkhet, 35, alias “The TUnisian”,consideredas the ringleader of the group. 

2. Jamal Ahmidan, 33, from a Moroccan descent.One of his brothers is also under investigation in connection with the Madrid Trains Bombing. Jamal Ahmidan is known to the police as a drugs dealer. 

3. Abdennabi Kounjaa, a Moroccan in his late 20^th. 

4. Asri Rifat Anouar,in his early 20^th from a Moroccan descent. 

5. Allekema Lamari, an Algerian. 

The Spanish police believed thatall the 6 killed in LEGANES were between the 10 terrorists that placed the bombs in the Madrid Trains Bombing. Because 6 key figures in committing the attack were dead, the Spanish police faced extreme difficulties to complete the investigation and it is still unknown, today (02/2007), if the order came from Al Qaeda in Pakistan or Iraq or it was a local initiative. 

Two terrorist, who accidentally wereoutside the apartment, managed to escape from LEGANES and fled Spain with the assistance of the Barcelona net : Mohammed Afalah ,thatblew himself inIraqin 05/2005, and Abdelmajid Bouchar that was later arrested in Belgrade,Serbia on 07/23/2005 and extradited back to Spain. 

After the explosion the policesearched the rubble and found that the terrorists had documents, maps and sufficient material to carry out further attacks. The police also found a videotape in the rubble. On the video Serhane Farkhet, on behalf of “The Brigades of al-Mufti and Ansar Al Qaeda” demanded that “Spanish troops pull out immediately from the land of the Muslims”. He linked Iraq and Afghanistan to the 15th century expulsion of Muslims from Spain– Al Andalus. Serhane Farkhet demanded “blood for blood!” and “destruction fordestruction!” – Days after recording the message, Serhane Farkhet and five self-styled Mujahidin blew themselves up in the LEGANES apartment (see testimony of Kamal Ahbar ). 

* Related topics –  

• 04/2004 -M11 AFTERMATHE 
  03/2004 -MADRID TERROR SUSPECTS 
  2004 -AHMIDAN’S DRUG GANG  

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