MADRID BOMB ATTACKS: STATUS OF INVESTIGATION -

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 000958 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/17/2014 TAGS: PTER PREL SP SUBJECT: MADRID BOMB ATTACKS: STATUS OF INVESTIGATION - MARCH 18 REF: MADRID 893 Classified By: Carol Urban, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Information from official sources remains limited due to the secrecy order issued by the judge presiding over the investigation, Judge Juan del Olmo. LegAtt Office will request further information through our mutual legal assistance treaty, but receipt of information as a result of that request may take 10 days or more. A major development to date has been the receipt by the Legatt's Office of fingerprints from the five suspects previously detained (see reftel) and latent prints from a van near one of the crime scenes that contained detonators. LegAtt Office has transmitted those prints to Washington for review. ¶2. (U) Press sources report that four more suspects were detained on Wednesday night or Thursday morning in connection with the investigation. All four are believed to be of Moroccan origin. One of those suspects is reported to be a man also sought by authorities for his involvement in the May 2003 bombings that killed 33 people in Casablanca. ¶3. (U) An Algerian man is also in custody to determine if he had previous knowledge of the Madrid attacks. Press sources say that the Algerian suspect, Ali AMROUS, had made comments to Basque region police during a January altercation that terrorist groups would fill the Castellana (a major Madrid street) and the Atocha train station with dead. A total of 10 suspects are now reported to be in custody. ¶4. (U) The death toll, as of Thursday, remained at 201. 128 victims are still hospitalized, with 109 of those being listed in serious or very serious condition. ARGYROS