Spain arrests 15 over recruiting Islamist fighters
MADRID, May 28 (Reuters) Spanish police said today they had arrested 15 people suspected of recruiting Islamic fighters for Iraq and North Africa.
The 13 Moroccans and two Algerians are alleged to have indoctrinated others with radical Islamic teachings and glorified ''jihad'', or holy war, the ministry said in a statement.
''Moreover, it (the group) was allegedly linked with the financing and sending of combatants to different terrorist organisations in North Africa and other countries in conflict like Iraq.'' Police arrested 12 in Barcelona and nearby towns, while another two were detained in Aranjuez, 50 km south of Madrid, and one in the resort city of Malaga.
Documents, diaries, computers, mobile telephones and papers related to jihad were seized, in an operation that police said was connected to the arrest of 22 jihadists in January.
Spanish police have now arrested over 100 Islamist suspects since deadly train bombings in Madrid in 2004, detaining some over an alleged plot to blow up Madrid's High Court.
Police have also stepped up security in Spain's north African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which have a sizeable Muslim population.
Bruno Cardenosa, a Spanish journalist who writes about international terrorism, said the arrests did not indicate a major threat to Spain from Muslim militants.
''We have seen several operations against Islamic terrorism in Spain in recent years, in which the charges have not been that serious. Very probably, most of these suspects will be out in the coming hours or days,'' said Cardenosa.
He added that levels of Islamist recruitment for foreign wars was much higher in the 1980s and 1990s, for Afghanistan and Bosnia, and the overall threat to Spain remained ''very low''.
Spain is officially home to around 570,000 Moroccans - the biggest immigrant group in the country, a large proportion of whom live in Catalonia.
The arrests came as the Madrid trial of 29, mainly Moroccan, suspects, accused of killing 191 people in the train bombings begins to draw to a close. The attack has been linked to al Qaeda.
REUTERS
GL
RN1921