Jihadist arrested in Spain for planning terror attack

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A 21-year-old Moroccan man has been arrested in Vitoria in Northern Spain on charges of planning an attack in Spain with another terrorist, the Spanish Interior Ministry informed on Tuesday.

The jihadist, who belonged to ISIL, also allegedly recruited terrorists for jihad, according to Spanish police.

Police said the Moroccan man experienced a drastic change in his life and found an interest in extremist Salafist postulates, even going as far as to defend the violence of terrorist organizations, especially ISIL, on social media.

He contacted another terrorist who was arrested in Morocco in 2017 for intending to launch an attack in Spain, while inciting him to commit these massacres with material regarding the ISIL group.

Spanish police believed that cooperation between Spain and Morocco was also key to dismantling the intentions of the arrested.

"The cooperation, along with the permanent alert of both countries in prevention, detection and neutralization of potential terrorist elements, is fruitful. These operations allow us to deactivate this type of threats on both sides," said the police.

This new arrest shows the special attention that Spain pays to jihadism. Since the country raised its Antiterrorist Alert Level to four out of a maximum of five in 2015, the security forces have arrested 297 jihadists.

(Cover: Police officers guide an arrested person out the police station during and anti-jihad operation in the Spanish enclave of Melilla, Sept. 6, 2017. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency