Spain arrests 18-year-old woman suspected of Islamic State links

Police says she is suspected of recruiting other women via the Internet to the group

MADRID: Spanish police said they arrested an 18-year-old Moroccan woman on Saturday accused of preparing to travel to Syria to join the group Islamic State (IS).

She was the latest in a series of suspected IS sympathisers detained in Spain since last year over security fears.

Police said she was suspected of recruiting other women via the Internet to the group, also known as Daesh, which has claimed numerous kidnappings and executions.

Read: Spain, Morocco arrest 14 suspected of recruiting for Islamic State

At the time of her arrest early Saturday in the coastal town of Gandia near Valencia, she "was making the last preparations for her journey" to Syria, a police statement said.

She was not the first woman arrested in Spain for allegedly recruiting women and girls for the armed group, after another was detained on the island of Lanzarote in July.

More than 100 people from Spain are suspected of having joined the fighters in Iraq and Syria, and authorities fear they may return to launch attacks.

Read: Spain breaks up online network recruiting young women for IS

In March 2004, Al-Qaeda inspired bombers blew up four packed commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people.

More than 20 people including various Moroccans were convicted of that attack.

Police said the woman detained Saturday was Moroccan but had lived for a long time in Spain.

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Officers arrested her "for suspected links with the terrorist activities".

"She spread the ideology on the Internet, justifying terrorist acts and spreading videos that glorified executions of people," it said.

"She had focused her online activity on recruiting women to go and swell the ranks of Daesh."