Police arrested six Spaniards on Wednesday in northern Asturias region on charges of providing explosives used in the Madrid bombings, Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said.  

All the six are involved in a network that delivered the explosives to the terrorists to carry out the attacks, Alonso told a news conference.

The Madrid terror strikes killed 191 people and wounded at least 1,500. Spanish investigators believe that the attacks were the work of Islamic militants acting in the name of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.

Alonso declined to give details about how the explosives had been passed on to the terrorists.

One of the detainees, Emilio Llano, was a security guard at the mine Conchita in Asturias region, from which the explosives used in the attacks are believed to have originated.

The detainees also include the wife and brother-in-law of former miner Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras, who had been arrested and jailed for giving the explosives to the command in the attacks.

The minister explained that the six are important for the whole investigation.

Alonso also said an Egyptian, Rabei Osman Ahmed, arrested Tuesday in Milan, Italy, was a key figure in the planning of the attacks and a person of major importance in the structure of al-Qaeda in Spain and the European Union.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2004)