Rabat - A Moroccan couple and their sons were arrested in Spain on Tuesday after they planned to travel to Syria to join the ranks of extremist groups, the Spanish Interior Ministry said.
Rabat – A Moroccan couple and their sons were arrested in Spain on Tuesday after they planned to travel to Syria to join the ranks of extremist groups, the Spanish Interior Ministry said.
The two teenagers, both under the age of 16, were preparing to go to Syria through Morocco on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement. They were arrested in the Mediterranean city of Badalona, 11 kilometers from Barcelona.
The teens planned to join Jihadist groups in a trip which was to take them into Syria through Turkey, according to the Spanish authorities.
The Ministry said the siblings had been under surveillance since a third brother of them had already traveled to war-torn Syria, where he is believed to have joined the ranks of the so-called Islamic State terrorist organization.
“The sons were due to travel on Tuesday morning to Syria through Morocco and Turkey with the full knowledge of their direct entourage, including their mother, whose other son had already died in the same conflict,” the interior ministry said.
They had reportedly dropped out of school in Badalona and started studying at an Islamic centre in Morocco, according to the ministry.
In 2014, Spanish authorities detained 47 people in 12 different anti-terrorism operations. Most of them have been accused of recruiting militants for Islamic State fighters.
