A MAN linked to Al-Qaeda and believed to have helped to mastermind the Madrid train bombings was overheard last month describing a plot for a woman to carry out a chemical or germ attack in America that he said would “wipe out an entire neighbourhood”.

The Italian warrant for the arrest of Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, 32, an Egyptian seized in a suburb of Milan last week, details transcripts of bugged conversations and telephone calls in which he not only boasted of his involvement in the Spanish attack of March 11 but also spoke of future plans. The Spanish government has said it will seek the extradition of Ahmed — also known as “Mohamed the Egyptian”.

Ahmed moved to Milan in early April. Police surveillance teams nicknamed him “the trainer” because of his practice of befriending Muslim immigrants, finding out who was most dissatisfied with the West and asking: “What are you doing to change the situation?” A former Egyptian army explosives expert, he bears a sign of his religious devotion on his forehead — a weal caused by striking his head hard on the ground during Muslim prayers.

Bugs placed by anti-terrorist police in Ahmed’s one-bedroom flat recorded a conversation on May 26 with Yahia Payumi, 21, a Palestinian who was also later arrested.

After denouncing the torture by American troops of “our brothers in Iraq”, Ahmed was quoted as saying: “Hotaf has been prepared with many medicinal products. If they throw one stick, they wipe out an American neighbourhood.”

Although the woman named Hotaf was said to have been discovered, other women were ready to replace her, Ahmed added. “Amal, Hanan, Fatiha — you only need to call them and they come. God is great.”

A senior investigator said he believed Ahmed was referring to plans for a chemical or bacteriological attack.

Professor Paul Wilkinson, a terrorism expert at St Andrews University, said: “Al-Qaeda is more advanced on weaponising chemicals rather than biological agents, so I should think we’re talking about sarin gas, a cyanide-based weapon or a nerve gas.”

In the same May 26 conversation, Ahmed claimed responsibility for the Spanish bombings. “The Madrid attack was a project of mine and those who died as martyrs are my dear friends,” he said. “I, too, was ready to be blown up but they stopped me and we obey the will of God.”

In the arrest warrant, the Milan investigating magistrates Armando Spataro and Maurizio Romanelli wrote that Ahmed “undoubtedly played a role within Al-Qaeda”, both in organising the Madrid bombings in which 191 people died and in planning other attacks.

He first came to the attention of Milan police after Spanish authorities passed on their discovery of an Italian mobile phone used by Ahmed. Its number featured on the mobiles of four other people linked to the Madrid attack.

Italian investigators say Ahmed, who has lived in Germany, Spain, France and Belgium in the past four years, was responsible for recruiting prospective suicide bombers, and co-ordinated terrorist cells in Europe and beyond.

Two groups of suicide bombers were due to leave for Iraq in late June, he claimed. “We have to be everywhere — in Germany, the Netherlands and London. We are dominating Europe with our presence.”

In another telephone conversation, on May 29, Ahmed spoke to a Moroccan known only as Mourad, who lived in Belgium and was due in Paris soon to meet a terrorist apparently preparing to carry out a suicide attack.

According to Italian newspapers, Ahmed’s cell was planning an attack on the Paris underground, but this was denied by the investigating magistrates in Milan. They also denied press reports that other targets included Nato headquarters in Brussels and the European parliament in Strasbourg.

The transcripts reveal how Ahmed gradually managed to persuade Payumi to become a suicide bomber. “We young people must be the first ones to sacrifice ourselves,” he said. When Payumi finally announces, “I am ready to sacrifice myself,” Ahmed replies: “Consider yourself already in paradise.”

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