MADRID, Spain — A Spanish judge indicted 13 suspected Islamic extremists yesterday on charges of belonging to al-Qaida and said some of them probably took part in last year's train bombings in Madrid.

The indictment said the suspects, mostly Moroccans, had formed two terror cells in 2002 — one in Morocco and one in Madrid — and concluded that after Spain sent peacekeeping troops to Iraq that year, the country was "an enemy of Islam and therefore it was necessary to stage an attack" in Spain.

The 13 men were arrested in raids starting last October after police claimed to have foiled a planned suicide truck bombing to blow up the National Court, the hub of Spain's investigation of Muslim extremism, including last year's train bombings in Madrid.

However, the indictment issued by Judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska did not specifically accuse them of planning to destroy the court. It only charged them with belonging to a terrorist group, namely al-Qaida.

Four of the 13 men indicted are fugitives. Eight are in jail in Spain and one is in prison in Morocco in connection with bombings in the Moroccan city of Casablanca in May 2003.

The cells were formed in 2002 by that jailed man, Mustafa Maymouni, who was recruited by fugitive Moroccan Amer Azizi, a suspect in the Madrid train bombings and Sept. 11 attacks, the 10-page indictment said.

In Madrid, the cell held long meetings at which members discussed how to wage holy war, or jihad. Maymouni left Spain in May 2003 and was arrested in Morocco.

The indictment said the Madrid cell also included two key suspects in the March 11, 2004, train bombings in Madrid — Moroccan Jamal Zougam and Egyptian Rabei Osman.

Italy police arrest 9 terror-cell suspects

ROME — Police arrested nine terror suspects yesterday during raids in northern Italy in what they said was a crackdown on extremist cells accused of planning attacks in Italy and abroad.

Six suspects were arrested in Milan and three in Turin, police said, after investigations into alleged cells based in the two cities.

Police in Milan said most of the suspects were Tunisian, and sought in connection with investigations stretching back several years. Those arrested in Turin are Moroccans.

Four of those arrested in Milan are believed to be part of a cell with links to terror groups including Ansar al-Islam, an organization active in Iraq that has ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

Police said the cell is believed to have planned attacks in Italy and abroad, and to have recruited fighters for Afghanistan and Iraq. The group sent money and documents to militants in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Malaysia and Singapore, police said.

The group planned — but never carried out — attacks on the Milan subway and on the cathedral in the northern Italian town of Cremona, police said.

The four — identified by police as Mouldi Ben Rachid Ben Yahia, Hichem Ben Mohamed Hekiri, Samir Sassi and Kamel Kneni — are accused of "subversive association aimed at international terrorism," a charge introduced after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

They are also accused of dealing in false documents and drug trafficking.