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Islamic State claims its ‘soldiers’ responsible for Barcelona attack
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency claims that the attack in Barcelona, Spain today was carried out by the group’s “soldiers.” The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a string of operations in which terrorists drove a van or truck into a crowd.
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Ex-Guantanamo detainee allegedly led recruiting cell for the Islamic State
A former Guantanamo detainee named Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed was arrested on Feb. 23 in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, for allegedly running a jihadist recruiting cell for the Islamic State. Spanish authorities also claim that he and others were willing to carry out a terrorist attack on Spanish soil. According to a leaked Joint Task Force Guantanamo threat assessment, Ahmed traveled through Iran to Afghanistan to receive training in al Qaeda’s camps in 2001.
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Spain
Spain arrests four in swoop of suspected militant cell in north Africa
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Al Qaeda
Charlie Hebdo suspect ‘mentored’ by Abu Hamza disciple
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Spain
Authorities raised the security threat level to three on a scale of four after suspicious packages were delivered to the offices of several Spanish media organizations. Offices were evacuated and the packages were examined before workers were allowed back into the buildings. The US is seeking to station an elite Marine group permanently at an air base in Andalusia for rapid-response missions in Africa.
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Spain
Madrid’s Atocha train station reopens after false bomb alert
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Spain
During raids in Barcelona, Ceuta, Melilla, and the Moroccan municipality of Castillejos, Spanish and Moroccan police arrested seven people, including four women and a minor, suspected of links to an lslamic State recruitment network that sent women to Iraq and Syria. Two of the female suspects were allegedly about to join the Islamic State. Authorities estimate that some 100 Spaniards have joined the Islamic State and that as many as 2,000 Moroccans have traveled to Iraq or Syria for jihad.
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Spain
A High Court prosecution of 15 members of an Islamic State recruiting group in Madrid revealed that it was headed by former Guantanamo detainee Lahcen Ikassrien, who used Madrid’s largest mosque as a recruitment center. The group, which called itself the Al Andalus Brigade, also operated a jihadist training camp on property it owned in Ávila. A High Court investigation last month disclosed that a Ceuta-based recruiting network headed by Yassin Ahmed Laarbi had sent 14 fighters to the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State in Syria; the network had also planned attacks in Spain.
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Belgium
Europe Tries to Stop Flow of Citizens Joining Jihad
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Spain
A court remanded in custody Mohamed Said Mohamed, thought to be the leader of an Islamic State recruiting cell based in Melilla and in the Moroccan city of Nador. Spanish and Moroccan authorities arrested nine members of the cell, all Moroccan except for the leader, a Spaniard, in raids on Sept. 26. Spain has conducted 20 such operations since 2011, and is working closely with Moroccan authorities, who have said that as many as 2,000 Moroccans are fighting with the Islamic State.
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France
Who’s who in coalition to defeat Islamic State
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The Islamic State’s global reach
A closer look at recent developments in a number of countries should dispel any illusions that the Islamic State’s aspirations and activities are only regional.
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Algeria
Morocco, Spain combat terror threat
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Spain
Spanish security forces say that Mohamed Almedi Khalou, a former Moroccan army officer, is now leading some 1,200 Moroccans who have joined Islamic State forces in Syria in a group called the Harakat al Sham, or Sham al Islam. Khalou reportedly replaced Brahim Benchekroun, a former Guantanamo detainee who was killed in Syria in April. Prior to his death, Benchekroun had begun planning attacks in Morocco. At least 35 Spaniards are estimated to have joined the ranks of rebel fighters in Syria, and most are thought to have joined the Islamic State.
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Spain
Spanish authorities arrested two Spanish girls, one 19 years old and the other 14, as they tried to cross over from Melilla into Morocco to join a cell of the Islamic State. The Interior Ministry said the girls’ “radicalization, recruitment and later dispatch … were perfectly planned … by a network that operates across north Africa and has as its main goal getting the maximum number of unquestioning combatants.” Spain has arrested over 470 suspected Islamic extremists since the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
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Qatar
UK extremists linked to Qatar World Cup bid
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Iraq
ISIS militants outline chilling 5-year plan for global domination
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Iraq
Jihadist returnees stir concern in the Maghreb
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Ex-Guantanamo detainee arrested in Spain tied to infamous al Qaeda cell
Lahcen Ikassrien, an ex-Guantanamo detainee, was arrested earlier this month in Spain. Leaked State Department cables and a threat assessment authored by Joint Task Force Guantanamo link Ikassrien to an al Qaeda cell run by one of Osama bin Laden’s most trusted operatives in pre-9/11 Europe.
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Spain
Spanish authorities arrested nine members of a jihadist cell in Madrid yesterday that recruited fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham in Syria and Iraq. The cell is led by Moroccan national Lahcen Ikassrien, 47, a former Guantanamo detainee who was handed over in 2005 to Spain, where he was released after being acquitted of cooperating with al Qaeda. Ikassrien belonged to a network run by Abu Dah Dah a.k.a. Imad Eddin Barakat, one of the founders of al Qaeda in Spain. Other members of the recruiting cell included Denis Ibryam Redhed., a Bulgarian; César Raúl Rodríguez,…
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France
In Europe, no plans for military involvement in Iraq
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Analysis: Blowback from the Syrian jihad has begun
In well over a dozen countries, evidence has emerged that jihadists who trained or fought in Syria are engaging in terrorist activities in their home countries and elsewhere.
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Spain
Security forces in Melilla arrested six jihadists involved in a network that sends fighters to al Qaeda camps in Syria, Mali, and Libya. Cell leader Benaissa Laghmouchi Baghdadi, 42, who had spent eight months in Syria, has ties to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) in Mali. Some of the six suspects are also linked to Sharia4Spain, a branch of a global Internet-based jihadist network, which recruits fighters for Syria and Mali.
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Belgium
Belgium, Allies Try to Halt Flow of Young Islamist Fighters to Syria
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Spain
Spanish security forces, working with French police, arrested Abdelmalek Tanem, an Algerian national who also has French citizenship, in Almeria on April 30. He had recently returned from Syria, where he worked as a facilitator along the Turkish border, integrating European jihadists into the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham. Authorities arrested 21 people in six regions for lauding terrorist groups such as ETA and Islamist extremists, urging additional attacks, and mocking victims on social networking sites.
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Spain
Authorities arrested four people in Barcelona, Tarragona, and Palma de Mallorca who are suspected of trying to sell missile equipment to Iran. Three are Spanish nationals from the same family, and the fourth is an Iranian. During the raids, authorities confiscated cash, industrial equipment, and documents relating to defense information.
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Al Nusrah Front
Foreign jihadists recruit Maghreb youth
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Spain
In a joint operation, Spanish and Moroccan authorities targeting an al Qaeda recruiting network arrested four suspected members in Spain and three in Morocco. The network, whose activities extend to Morocco, Belgium, France, Tunisia, Turkey, Libya, Mali, Indonesia, and Syria, is headed by Melilla resident Mustafa Maya Amaya, who funneled recruits to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, the Al Nusrah Front, and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Among those detained is Chafik Jalel Ben Amara Elmedjeri, a Tunisian arrested on terrorism charges in 2006.
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Africa
US military boosting its presence in Spain
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Al Qaeda
Spain on Islamist alert, decade after train bombings
