Madrid, June 12 (IANS) Police in Barcelona arrested five people of Tunisian origin on suspicion of terrorist activities Wednesday, reported Xinhua.
Spain’s Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz confirmed that the operation was aimed at neutralizing the “threat of lone wolves”, and added that the five men had spent time using internet to spread speeches from Osama bin Laden or Al Zarqawi, videos of terrorist attacks and instructions on how to prepare explosive devices.
The interior ministry said police discovered a large quantity of material, among which were 400 archives of photos, videos and texts with images of attacks, speeches from radical leaders and training instructions as well as links to websites connected to or with a close relationship to Al Qaeda.
The ministry adds that those arrested have undergone “a serious process of self-radicalization”, which had “caused them to fully embrace the thesis of jihadi salafism”. They had been under investigation since the start of 2012.
Wednesday’s arrests in Barcelona take to 10 the number of suspected Islamist terrorists arrested in Spain this year. The last two arrests took place on April 23 in the cities of Zaragoza and Murcia with the detention of two suspected members of a cell of the group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb.
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