Suspected Madrid blast 'mastermind' arrested

Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said on Tuesday militants had been planning more attacks as police swooped as part of an operation across Europe. He said the swoop was aimed at a group "close to al-Qaeda".

Police in Milan arrested Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian", and another man as part of cross-border raids into the March 11 bombings that killed 191 people in the Spanish capital, the judicial sources said.

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Ahmed was considered "one of the masterminds" of the Madrid bombings, a Spanish Interior Ministry spokesman said.