POLICE in Hamburg believe they have foiled a plan by Islamic terrorists to bomb holiday resorts on the Spanish coast popular with British tourists, writes Justin Sparks.

News of the plot follows the arrest of a suspected terrorist identified only as Abderrazak M who, German investigators believe, may have had links to Mohammad Atta, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The 30-year-old Algerian was arrested in a raid last month on his home in Hamburg-Rahlstedt, where he lived with his wife and two children. The arrest was the culmination of a surveillance operation involving the Spanish and Algerian authorities.

Abderrazak is being held on a charge of “preparing an attack with explosives”. Intelligence services were first alerted to his activities when he flew to Jordan last March with at least four other Islamic radicals intent on joining the “holy war” against America and Britain in Iraq.

In Syria the men were intercepted by police as they tried to cross into Iraq. After repeated interrogation, they were allowed to fly back to Hamburg but their details were passed to the CIA and the German foreign ministry.

It soon emerged that Abderrazak attended prayers at the Al-Quds mosque in Hamburg which was frequented by Atta and his terrorist cell. Using codewords to identify himself and his associates, Abderrazak made almost daily calls to co-conspirators in Spain and Algeria using a mobile phone that had been bugged by the German police.

Investigators believe that two separate bomb attacks were being planned on Spanish resorts this summer. According to a leaked report in the German magazine Focus, explosives and detonators had already been prepared and terrorists were to be smuggled from north Africa to execute the plan.

Last Thursday another militant Islamist suspected of having links with the group was arrested at the request of the German authorities in Lloret de Mar, on the Costa Brava. Djaouat Abdelhai, 33, has a criminal record for forgery and had been sentenced in absentia by a Bavarian court for drug trafficking.

Investigators believe Abderrazak had extensive links with organised crime. His contacts include Samir Biga who in February 2001, while being chased by police in Hamburg, detonated a hand grenade, blowing off his lower left arm and injuring a hostage.

Investigators fear that Abderrazak may have recruited him to act as a suicide bomber after his release from a secure unit later this year.

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