MADRID, Spain - Fifteen North Africans were arrested in Spain on Monday on suspicion of recruiting volunteers to fight in Iraq and other countries.
Spain's Interior Ministry said computer material, jihad propaganda and several cell phones were seized during at least five pre-dawn raids throughout Spain. No arms or explosives were discovered.
Thirteen of the 15 were Moroccan and two were from Algeria, according to the statement, which said the group was operating as a cell that allegedly send money and fighters to different terrorist organizations in north Africa, Iraq and other countries.
"The arrests are further evidence that Spain is part of the battlefield of international terrorism," said Jesus Nunez Villaverde, an expert on the Islamic world and director of a Madrid think-tank, the Institute of Studies on Conflict and Humanitarian Action.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, Spanish police have arrested hundreds of Islamic terror suspects, many in connection with the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people.
Twenty-nine suspects, most of them Moroccan, are on trial in the Spanish capital for their alleged roles in the Madrid train attacks, which were claimed by Islamic radicals to avenge Spain's presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda has frequently claimed that it intends to recover "al-Andalus," a reference to the vast area of Spain ruled by the Moors for 800 years until 1492.
