MADRID – Spanish Prime Minister Jos_ Luis Rodr_guez Zapatero on Friday downplayed the latest threat against Spain by the terrorist organisation Al Qaeda, saying the government was working hard to prevent attacks against Spanish interests. “We’ve been receiving more or less explicit threats for a long time now (and) it’s nothing new although this time it’s gotten a lot of press play,” he said in a radio interview. In a video released this week, Al Qaeda’s number two, Ayman al Zawahiri, urged Muslims to “clean the Islamic Maghreb of the sons of France and Spain.”
