An update on this story. "Extremists plotted attacks across Europe, Spanish paper says," from CNN:
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Suspected Islamic extremists arrested last week in Barcelona were planning al Qaeda-style attacks in Spain, Germany, France, Britain and Portugal, according to an informant who "infiltrated" the group, Spain's El Pais newspaper reports. "If we attack the metro [subway system in Barcelona], the emergency services can't get there," one of the suspected suicide bombers told the informant, El Pais reported on Saturday. "Our preference is public transport, especially the metro."
El Pais reported that it had access to the informant's testimony to Spanish officials.
CNN has confirmed that authorities have given high importance to an informant's testimony.
The judge who ordered 10 suspects held for allegedly plotting a suicide attack in Barcelona, cited in his rulings the testimony of an informant. CNN has viewed the rulings.
Spain's Interior Minister last Friday said an informant warned of a planned suicide attack against Barcelona's metro on the weekend of January 18 to 20. But he added that, for now, "there is only the testimony of an informant" regarding the timing.
The informant told authorities the cell comprised six suicide bombers, including himself, El Pais reported on Saturday.
Spain's attorney general, Candido Conde-Pumpido, said last week that the cell could have contained six suicide bombers, two explosives experts and two ideologues.
Judge Ismael Moreno, in rulings last Wednesday, wrote that the informant had named three suspected suicide bombers and an explosives expert, all of whom had traveled from Pakistan to Barcelona since last summer. The judge ordered these four men held, out the total of 10 jailed suspects who are from South Asia.
They include nine Pakistani nationals and a man from India, who is Muslim.
A court-appointed translator told CNN that all 10 suspects testified during their arraignments that they were innocent.
The cell planned three attacks in Spain, one in Germany and others in France, Britain and Portugal, according to the informant, El Pais reported.
On Sunday, another El Pais story added that the "wave of attacks" was to have been carried out by the Barcelona group and other extremist Pakistani cells were to attack elsewhere in Europe.
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