MADRID (AP)
-- Spanish National Police arrested four suspected jihadis Saturday in
the country's North African enclave of Ceuta who allegedly had formed a
terror cell and were ready to carry out an attack, the Interior Ministry
said.
Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz
said investigators, working with their Moroccan counterparts, were
struck by the similarities between the suspected cell members and the
two French brothers who killed 12 people in an attack upon the Charlie
Hebdo newspaper in Paris.
"These are two pairs
of very radicalized brothers who are highly trained militarily,
physically and mentally and are prepared to carry out an attack, and
ready, according to the police, to blow themselves up in the act,"
Fernandez Diaz said.
Two houses in Ceuta were
searched in Saturday morning police raids and four men, all Spanish
citizens of Moroccan origin, were arrested, the agency said. Officers
found an automatic pistol, ammunition, military fatigues,
face-concealing hoods, Spanish vehicle license plates, large machetes,
knives and documents.
The ministry said the
four were following instructions given by the al-Qaida in Iraq leader,
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, via what it called "a powerful and aggressive
communication campaign" including jihadi Internet forums and websites.
Al-Baghdadi is now the leader of the extremist Islamic State group,
which controls about a third of Iraq and Syria.
Investigators were still assessing the cell's "infrastructure to carry out terror attacks in the country," the ministry said.
Spain
and Morocco have arrested dozens of suspected jihadist militants and
recruiters in recent years, especially around Melilla and Ceuta, Spanish
coastal cities in North Africa that are surrounded by Morocco.
