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Rabat – Moroccan intelligence services have allegedly helped their Spanish counterparts thwart a terrorist attack in Barcelona, according to the Moroccan daily Assabah.
Morocco’s General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DGST) provided Spanish intelligence services with “valuable information” to dismantle two active cells whose mission was to inflict as much damage as the terrorist attacks perpetuated in Paris of November 13.
Morocco helped Spain avoid a tragedy of great magnitude in the Catalan region, which has risen its security alert to its highest level, as well as that of its French borders.
According to the same source, the first cell was active cell between France, Spain and Belgium, whereas the second one operated between Barcelona and Northern Morocco.
The movements of these networks have unveiled their recruitment of thousands of jihadists following the airstrikes carried out by the international coalition against the positions of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS).
Over the weekend, Spanish police arrested three alleged jihadists, tow men and a woman. All of them are of Moroccan origin, according to the Spanish newspaper ABC.
It is likely that the Spanish Minister of Interior of Interior, Jorge Fernandez Diaz, declared the state of emergency in Barcelona after receiving this information from his Moroccan counterparts.
In a statement to the press last week, the minister that Morocco and Spain, have been cooperating on a large scale in the fight against terrorism in order to tackle any threats that might come from the Jihadists.
According to Spanish daily ABC, the three alleged jihadists arrested in Catalonia worked as correspondents of ISIS in Spain.
“The role of the three, two men and a woman, who were in contact with jihadists in Syria through internet, was to capture terrorists, especially women, to exalt and spread contents such as videos, black flags of the Islamic State and comments that incite people to join ISIS,” according to the same source.
Moroccan intelligence services have helped thwart a series of terrorist attacks in Morocco and Europe.
Following the Paris terrorist attacks last November, Morocco’s intelligence services were instrumental in helping the French security forces locate the whereabouts of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, alleged mastermind of the attacks. The jihadist, who was killed in an assault of the French security forces, was planning to carry out another terrorist attack in the French capital.
