Al Qaeda Targets Spanish Enclaves in North Africa

(Madrid) According to intelligence sources, the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco are targets of an al Qaeda jihad to 'liberate occupied cities.'

Intelligence services are describing the information they now have as the most worrying since 2004, with a fundamental group distributing a statement which describes the two cities as being occupied. It was also placed on a radical webpage from a cybercafe in Algeria.

Meanwhile, police have arrested two alleged members of the GICM -- The Moroccan Islamic Combat Group in Melilla in connection with the bomb attack on the Casa de Espana in Casablanca in May 2003 in which 41 people lost their lives.

The arrested men are 43 year old Belgium, although born in Morocco, Ali Aarras, and 31 year old Nordin El Behri Hamed Mohande from Melilla. The second was released from custody on Sunday after questioning.

The statement on the Internet called for "a war against the infidel Spanish state and for the liberation of the occupied cities of Ceuta and Melilla." The statement was signed by Nadim Al Magrebi, a pseudonym for an al Qaeda-linked group.