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MADRID, Spain -- Spanish police said Thursday they arrested the alleged leader of two cells suspected of recruiting fighters for the Iraqi insurgency.

Omar Nakhchamay, a Moroccan, may also have had links with the Madrid train bombings of 2004, police said.

In a statement, police said Nakhcha, 23, was arrested early Thursday in the northeastern town of Santa Coloma de Gramanet.

Police suspect he is the leader of two well-organized and interconnected cells - one based in Madrid and the other in the Barcelona-area town of Vilanova i la Geltru - which were suspected of recruiting fighters and raising money for the Iraqi insurgency.

Twenty people were arrested Tuesday in a crackdown on the two groups, police said.

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The two cells had links to people in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey, Syria and Iraq, police said.

The statement said Nakhcha was also suspected of having helped four suspected members of the cell that carried out the Madrid commuter train attacks evade police detection and flee Spain.

Spanish police have arrested more than 200 Muslim militant suspects since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, and beefed up a police unit specializing in Islamist terror groups, among other heightened security measures.

© 2006 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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