Spanish and Moroccan police arrest 7 people involved in sending “jihadists” to Syria

Spanish Interior Ministry announced Friday that Spanish and Moroccan police arrested 7 members of a terrorist cell involved in recruiting “jihadists” and sending them to fight alongside the armed groups in Syria.

The Associated Press published extracts of a statement by the Ministry saying the Spanish police arrested four people, three of them in the city of Melilla and the fourth in Melqa.

The Moroccan police arrested three other persons, according to the statement, which pointed out that one of the seven arrestees had recently returned to Spain after spending time with al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups.

The Spanish Interior Ministry described the cell as the most dangerous to be uncovered so far, stressing that the cell was involved in sending “jihadists” to Syria. The cell’s leader was among the arrested members, the Ministry noted.

Spanish police arrested last year eight terrorists in a similar operation in Ceuta city.

A report published by the International Center for Radical Studies, affiliated to King’s College University in London, showed the number of foreign gunmen fighting within the terrorist groups’ ranks in Syria amounted to 11000, including 2000 gunmen from 15 European countries. Among those are 412 from France and 366 from Britain.