Spain Says Arrested Pair Were Part of Terrorist Plot
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Version 0 of 1. PARIS — The Interior Ministry of Spain said on Tuesday that the police had arrested two men and dismantled a radical Islamist cell that had been plotting an attack in Spain or in neighboring countries. “This group was clearly operational and consisted of individuals who were already radicalized and prepared for possible attack, in our own country or those nearby,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement. It said the two men were Spanish citizens of Moroccan origin, who were arrested in Ceuta, a Spanish coastal enclave in North Africa. Ceuta and another area to the east, Melilla, have come under growing scrutiny in recent months as the Spanish authorities have intensified efforts to dismantle possible terrorist cells. The two enclaves have large numbers of Muslims who hold European passports. The Spanish authorities said the suspects were in contact with Islamic State militants over the Internet. The authorities said the men had been arrested in the same police inquiry that led to four arrests in January after the police seized guns, ammunition, knives and Spanish license plates. The authorities said the six arrested in the two sweeps had similar profiles to those who committed fatal attacks in and around Paris in January, in which the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket were targeted. Across Europe, the authorities have been ratcheting up efforts to root out Islamist extremists. The effort has intensified amid fears that some among the thousands who have left Europe to join jihadists in Syria and Iraq will return and carry out attacks. Such alarm is particularly acute in Spain, which suffered a series of train bombings by Islamist militants in 2004 that killed 191 people. |