Rabat – Morocco’s General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST) recently collaborated with Spanish authorities to arrest in Spain and Austria two foreign terrorist fighters believed to be members of a global jihadist organization.
The two foreign terrorist fighters hold Moroccan nationality and have links to an infamous global terrorist organization, Spain’s Interior Ministry said on Friday, adding that they returned to Europe from Syria two months ago after receiving military training and gaining combat experience.
“Agents from the Spanish National Police carried out an anti-terrorist operation which resulted in the arrest of two foreign terrorist fighters,” the Spanish Interior Ministry said in a statement on Friday, adding that the two detainees entered Europe clandestinely through the Balkan route.
According to the Spanish Interior Ministry, the suspects received military training from an al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Syria. Following the loss of terrorist-occupied territories in the Syrian-Iraqi region, the two suspects fled to Turkey where they stayed for a few months looking for an opportunity to smuggle to Europe.
From Turkey, they followed the Balkan route to Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, and Austria, from where one of them went to Spain.
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The Spanish ministry highlighted that Spanish security services started monitoring the two terrorist fighters at the beginning of this year after the General Intelligence Commissariat obtained information that they were planning to enter European territory.
This led to the arrest of one of them in Austria thanks to a European Arrest Warrant (EAW), while the second one was arrested in Mataro in Barcelona, a few days after his arrival in the city, the statement added.
The operation was carried out in collaboration with the Spanish National Intelligence Center (CNI), Morocco’s DGST, the FBI, the Austrian Security and Intelligence Agency (DSN), Europol, and the German police.
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