Was there a British connection to the Islamic bombings in Madrid? Spanish killers may have called British cleric. (Hat tip: The Grand Vizier.)

SPANISH police believe the Madrid bombers may have called a radical Islamic leader based in Britain shortly before they blew themselves up last week, a month after the train bombs killed 191 people.

Police believe the suspect terrorists called a man - possibly a cleric - last Saturday before committing collective suicide as police prepared to storm their apartment outside Madrid, the leading Spanish newspaper El Pais said, citing unidentified sources involved in the police investigation.

Investigators said they had little information about the suspect but think he is a radical Islamic leader and possibly an imam. Spanish police were reported as believing the call might indicate that the Madrid attacks were backed by people in Britain.

In the 11 March attacks, ten bombs ripped through four commuter trains during morning rush hour in the country’s worst terrorist attack.

Seventeen people, 13 of them Moroccan, have since been charged in connection with the bombings. Authorities believe that the main culprits are either behind bars or were killed when the seven terrorist suspects blew themselves up on 3 April.

However, at least six more suspects are still being sought by police, including Amer Azizi, a suspected leading member of the al-Qaeda terrorist group in Europe.

MI5 has already discovered that two of the men accused of taking part in the attacks have British links. The Moroccan brothers Mohamed and Rachid Oulad Akcha, for whom international arrest warrants have been issued by Juan del Olmo, the investigating judge in charge of the case, both spent time in London before the Madrid outrage.

Their sister, Naima Oulad Akcha, is the only female suspect so far arrested in connection with the Madrid massacre. She is being held in a top security prison, and is believed by investigators to have known all the terrorists involved in the attacks and allowed her flat to be used for planning meetings.