Spanish Jews May Have Been Targets

Police searching an apartment where suspects in last month’s Madrid train bombings blew themselves up found a document listing possible Jewish targets, members of Spain’s Jewish community and Spanish officials said Wednesday.

Listed in the document was a Jewish cemetery and cultural center called La Masada in Hoyo de Manzanares, a mountain town 20 miles northwest of Madrid.

Police combed the area last week but found no bombs, Fernando Esteban, mayor of Hoyo de Manzanares, said.

“They told us documents were found in the Leganes apartment in which the Masada center was named, which indicated it might be a possible target,” Esteban said. He said police gave him no details as to what type of document was found in Leganes, a town south of Madrid.

But the Interior Ministry, which handles police and security issues, and officials at the National Court on Wednesday denied evidence had been found that indicated any Jewish facility was a target.

“There is nothing [of what was found] which would lead one to think or indicate that there was any concrete target,” ministry spokesman Richard Ibanez said.

Police believe that the suspects who blew themselves up April 3 in Leganes included some of the ringleaders of the March 11 Madrid bombings that killed 191 people and injured 1,800.

Esteban said that about 60 police officers took part in the search of the Jewish cultural center and neighboring cemetery and that they later confirmed the areas were safe. He said that a small contingent of police officers continued to patrol the area.

Spain’s Jewish community numbers 30,000 to 40,000.

A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy, Jackie Eldam, said embassy officials had been made “aware of the information regarding the document found in the apartment” but declined to give more details.