Spain has had several brushes with Al Qaeda, including the commuter train bombings on March 11, 2004, a reported plot to blow up a Madrid courthouse last year, and militants' alleged use of Spain to help organize the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America.
But this was the first time Spain arrested people on suspicion of sending suicide attackers to Iraq, officials at the National Court said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitiveness of their jobs at the country's hub for Islamic terror investigations and the target of last year's foiled bomb plot.
While Iraq's insurgency is believed to be primarily made up of domestic Sunni Arabs, nearly all suicide bombings there are thought to be committed by Islamic extremists from other countries. Zarqawi's group is blamed for the bloodiest attacks.
The Interior Ministry said some of the 11 suspects tied to the recruiting network said they also wanted to become ''martyrs for Islam" in suicide attacks and were awaiting orders to do so. It did not specify how Spanish authorities learned that.
''Basically, what the police accuse them of is raising money and recruiting people to do activities abroad related with the international jihad," or holy war, Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso told reporters.
Most of the 11 are Moroccan and practically all of them sold drugs and staged robberies to finance their network, the ministry said. They were arrested as part of a probe that began in 2004.
Raids were conducted in Barcelona, Valencia, the southern Andalusia region, and Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the northern coast of Morocco. Police video showed helmeted officers with assault rifles standing over handcuffed men kneeling or lying face down, sometimes in their underwear, at their homes.
The Interior Ministry said the 11 belonged to a terror group that was established in Spain and linked to Ansar al-Islam, a Syrian-based group thought to have ties to Zarqawi's group.
