Madrid
Police in Italy this week arrested a man said to be a key plotter of the Madrid train bombings, which killed nearly 200 people in March. Rabei Osman el Sayed Ahmed, known to investigators as “Mohamed the Egyptian,” is a former Egyptian army explosives expert who taught bomb-making at al Qaida training camps in Afghanistan. He is known to have met with some of the Madrid bombers who died in a police raid shortly after the bombings. Italian police have had Ahmed under surveillance in Milan for several months. In one intercepted call, Ahmed said the Madrid bombers “are my friends, but I am sad because I cannot go to heaven with them.” Spain has asked for his extradition from Italy.
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