January 5, 2014
An Islamist activist returning to Europe from Syria was arrested on Sunday at Malaga airport in southern Spain as a potential “threat to national security”, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The suspect, Abdeluahid Sadik Mohamed, belongs to the al Qaeda-linked group, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the statement said.
A spokesman for the Ministry confirmed Sadik Mohamed is a Spanish national born in Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on Morocco’s north coast.
He had spent months alongside Islamic militants fighting in Syria and in Iraq since last May, arriving to the region from Casablanca, Morocco. He was arrested at Malaga airport on a flight from Istanbul, Turkey, the statement said.
Spanish terrorism experts have repeatedly said that authorities are closely tracking the movements of Islamic militants who have fought in Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan when they come to Europe for the threat they pose as potential “lone wolves” or in group terrorist actions.
Sadik Mohamed was allegedly involved in terrorist training camps in Syria and Iraq, the statement said. The Interior Ministry did not immediately reveal his age.
He was a suspect in a partially dismantled Spanish and Moroccan network of Islamic militants that recruited, indoctrinated, trained and financed militants to be sent to the battlefronts in Syria.
The network was based in Ceuta and and in the nearby Moroccan city of Fnideq.
CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/05/world/europe/spain-terror-arrest/
