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Spain Arrests ISIS Cell Planning Terrorist Attacks in Europe

FILE: Spanish civil guard members lead a person arrested on suspicion of links to militant group ISIS after a house search in Granada, southern Spain April 16, 2016. REUTERS/Pepe Marin
FILE: Spanish civil guard members lead a person arrested on suspicion of links to militant group ISIS after a house search in Granada, southern Spain April 16, 2016. REUTERS/Pepe Marin
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Spain Arrests ISIS Cell Planning Terrorist Attacks in Europe

FILE: Spanish civil guard members lead a person arrested on suspicion of links to militant group ISIS after a house search in Granada, southern Spain April 16, 2016. REUTERS/Pepe Marin
FILE: Spanish civil guard members lead a person arrested on suspicion of links to militant group ISIS after a house search in Granada, southern Spain April 16, 2016. REUTERS/Pepe Marin

The Spanish police have detained five people on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist group. Earlier, three other suspects were detained this year on charges of belonging to the same cell.

Investigations revealed that the ISIS affiliates have been trying to establish bases in several European Union countries and form cells to carry out terrorist plots.

The source said that these elements arrived in European countries through illegal immigration networks that use the seaports in southern Spain.

A spokesman for the Spanish police said that the detainees were very dangerous, and they almost acquired automatic weapons, including Kalashnikovs.

The spokesman said that the cell includes a group of Algerian youths, including two ISIS members, who had previously participated in the Syrian war. The agencies monitored their entry to Spain late last year.

Police sources said that following investigations and analysis of documents seized from the first group of suspects, a fourth person of Algerian nationality was arrested, whom they referred to as "Sheikh."

The sources said that the Sheikh entered from southern Spain by the sea with a group of illegal immigrants two months after the arrest of the cell members.

A Spanish security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Sheikh is responsible for recruiting new jihadist elements.

He was already known to law enforcement after being arrested in Turkey in 2016 while trying to join ISIS in Syria. He was deported to Algeria and sentenced to prison on terrorism charges.

After his release, he visited countries including Malaysia, Tanzania, and from there to the lands south of the Sahara, where he continued to recruit new members.

The source said that he continued to communicate with leading ISIS members and that he is the leader of the cell whose members were arrested.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the Sheikh was surrounded by Algerian youths who had previously been prosecuted for robbing tourists in Barcelona. ​

He persuaded them to join ISIS given his "great influence," and they began to help him recruit elements.

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India Fires Missiles into Pakistani Territory in what Islamabad Calls 'Act of War'

A private security guard walks through rubble of a damaged building after a suspected Indian missile attack, in Muridke, a town in Pakistan's Punjab province, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
A private security guard walks through rubble of a damaged building after a suspected Indian missile attack, in Muridke, a town in Pakistan's Punjab province, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
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India Fires Missiles into Pakistani Territory in what Islamabad Calls 'Act of War'

A private security guard walks through rubble of a damaged building after a suspected Indian missile attack, in Muridke, a town in Pakistan's Punjab province, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
A private security guard walks through rubble of a damaged building after a suspected Indian missile attack, in Muridke, a town in Pakistan's Punjab province, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

India fired missiles into Pakistani-controlled territory in several locations early Wednesday, killing at least 26 people including a child, in what Pakistan's leader called an act of war.
India said it struck infrastructure used by militants linked to last month’s massacre of tourists in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.
Pakistan claimed it shot down several Indian fighter jets in retaliation as two planes fell onto villages in India-controlled Kashmir. At least seven civilians were also killed in the region by Pakistani shelling, Indian police and medics said.
Tensions have soared between the nuclear-armed neighbors since the attack, which India has blamed Pakistan for backing. Islamabad has denied the accusation.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned Wednesday’s airstrikes and said his country would retaliate.
“Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given,” The Associated Press quoted Sharif as saying.

Stephane Dujarric, the United Nations spokesperson, said in a statement late Tuesday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for maximum restraint because the world could not “afford a military confrontation” between India and Pakistan.
Indian politicians from different political parties lauded the strikes. “Victory to Mother India,” India’s defense minister, Rajnath Singh, wrote on X.
India’s main opposition Congress party called for national unity and said it was “extremely proud” of the country’s army. “We applaud their resolute resolve and courage,” Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
India's army said the operation was named “Sindoor,” a Hindi word for the bright red vermillion powder worn by married Hindu women on their forehead and hair, referring to the wives who saw their husbands killed in front of them.
The missiles hit six locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s eastern Punjab province, killing at least 26 people, including women and children, said Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif.
Officials said another 38 people were injured by the strikes, and another five people were killed in Pakistan during exchanges of fire across the border later in the day.
Sharif said the Indian jets also damaged infrastructure at a dam in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, calling it a violation of international norms.
India’s Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted at least nine sites “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned.”
“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistan military facilities have been targeted,” the statement said, adding that “India has demonstrated considerable restraint."
Last month's attack on tourists was claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Kashmir Resistance.

The Indian police and medics said seven civilians were killed and 30 wounded by Pakistani shelling in Poonch district near the highly militarized Line of Control, the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir between the two countries. Officials said several homes also were damaged in the shelling.
The Indian army said Pakistani troops “resorted to arbitrary firing,” including gunfire and artillery shelling, across the frontier.
Shortly after India’s strikes, aircraft fell onto two villages in India-controlled Kashmir.
Sharif, the Pakistani military spokesperson, said the country’s air force shot down five Indian jets in retaliation for the strikes. There was no immediate comment from India about Pakistan’s claim.