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2 September 2004
MADRID – Spain is to step up police recruitment with the interior ministry hiring 347 extra officers to crack down on Islamic extremists following the 11 March train bombings in Madrid, a ministry spokesman said Thursday.
Around half of the new anti-terrorism officers will be stationed in the capital, the spokesman said.
To date Spain has 74 officers specially trained to counter Islamic extremists – the majority of those detained over the March bombings which killed 191 people in the country’s worst ever terrorist attack are Moroccans.
Spain has a separate anti-terrorist squad to counter the threat posed by armed Basque separatist network ETA, which has killed more than 800 people in three decades of fighting for an independent state in the northern Basque region and parts of southwestern France.
[Copyright EFE with Expatica]
Subject: Spanish news