Madrid
Islamic militants in Spain asked al Qaida for help in carrying out the March 11 train bombings that killed 192 people in Madrid, Spanish authorities said this week. Investigators said that Amer Azizi, a known al Qaida operative, met in Turkey last year with Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, the ringleader of the Madrid bombers. Azizi told Fakhet that his group could not offer direct assistance to the cell in Spain, officials said, but would allow the use of the al Qaida name. A British Muslim cleric may also have been involved in the deadly plot. The seven militants in the Spanish cell who blew themselves up in an apartment two weeks ago made a phone call to Britain just before the explosion.
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