Bashir says Madrid bombings a warning to US

CANBERRA: The Madrid train bombs were planted because of Spain’s support for the United States and as a warning to other US allies, said jailed Muslim preacher Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah. In a television interview from his cell in Jakarta, Bashir, who is likely to be freed next month, warned that Washington and its allies would be destroyed in the name of Allah, according to Australia’s Seven television network which aired the taped interview late on Wednesday. “The people of Spain have put pressure on their government because in their opinion the bombings were caused by the government’s support of America, and they’re right,” said Bashir. “We have to oppose America physically in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. We have to oppose it physically, such as to bomb or do other things,” Bashir said. Jemaah Islamiah, linked by intelligence agencies to the Al Qaeda terror network, has been blamed for the Bali blasts in October 2002 that killed 202 people and a suicide bomb attack at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta last August that killed 12. —Reuters

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