Alleged ringleader of Spain bombings dies in explosion

MADRID, Spain -- The apartment house suicide blast that killed the alleged ringleader of last month's Madrid, Spain, train bombings and four other terror suspects has left the core of the terror group either dead or in jail, Spain's interior minister said Sunday.\nExplosives discovered in the building where the five killed themselves to avoid capture Saturday night indicated they were plotting more violence and were linked to the failed bombing of a high-speed rail line Friday.\nTwo or three suspects may have escaped before the blast, which also killed a special forces officer and wounded 15 other policemen, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said in a news conference.\nPreliminary forensic tests on human remains in and around the apartment showed that five suspects had died in the blast, one more than previously reported, an Interior Ministry official said Sunday.\nSarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, a 35-year-old Tunisian accused of spearheading the March 11 attacks that killed 191 people, was among those who died in the explosion in Leganes, Spain, south of Madrid, Acebes said.\n"The core of the group that carried out the attacks is either arrested or dead in yesterday's collective suicide, including the head of the operative commando unit," Acebes said.\nFifteen suspects are already in custody in the Madrid attacks. Six have been charged with mass murder and nine with collaborating with or belonging to a terrorist organization. Eleven of the 15 charged are Moroccan.\nThe 22 pounds of dynamite and 200 detonators found in the apartment are the same as those used in the March 11 attacks as well as in the bomb that was discovered Friday -- before it detonated -- along the high-speed rail line between Madrid and Seville, Spain, Acebes said.\n"They were going to keep on attacking because some of the explosives were prepared, packed and connected to detonators," he said.\nThe type of explosives and detonators found are widely available in Spain, and the match was not certain proof of a connection.\nThe judge overseeing the probe of the attacks issued international warrants for Fakhet and five others last week. Fakhet was described as "leader and coordinator" of the suspects in the March 11 bombings. The warrant said he had been an active campaigner for jihad, or holy war, among the suspects as early as mid-2003. He had shown signs of preparing a violent act in the Madrid area "as a demonstration of said jihad," the warrant said.\nAnother man on the warrant list, Abdennabi Kounjaa, a Moroccan, also was identified as among the four who died Saturday night. A third man -- Asri Rifaat Anouar -- was not on the list. Another suspect's body was too severely mutilated to be identified immediately, Acebes said.\nThe Interior Ministry official said police evidence indicated that Jamal Ahmidan -- who was also on the warrant list -- was among the dead, but forensic tests were pending.\nAcebes said the explosion hurled pieces of a corpse into a swimming pool in a courtyard of the apartment.\nResidents saw police working under floodlights scoop pieces out of the pool before dawn Sunday. "I think they found a lot of remains," said Carmina Sanchez, 43, who lives in the building next door. (can we please take this out, it seems too gruesome to be necessary - amanda)\nAcebes declined to say how the bodies were identified. Another ministry official said it was done visually or with fingerprints.\nLater, Spanish news agencies said coroners examining the remains in and around the apartment thought five suspected terrorists might have died in the blast. The Interior Ministry could not confirm that.