Spain Busts Gang Linked to Forged Terrorist Passports

Police arrested seven people in Spain and three in Thailand in an international sting on a group suspected of forging passports for an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group, the Spanish Interior Ministry said today. The detainees formed part of a group based in Thailand and linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamic group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.

The detainees included six Pakistanis and one Nigerian. The ministry said the group stole passports, mostly from tourists in the Barcelona area, and sent them to Thailand to be doctored and later distributed to groups linked to al-Qaeda. The ministry said the group had also supplied forged documents to other groups, including the Tamil Tiger rebels who were crushed last year by Sri Lankan troops after a quarter-century war. (More al-Qaeda stories.)