Wednesday, October 24, 2007

MADRID: Spanish authorities have arrested six suspected Islamists who allegedly belong to an international network that promotes holy war on the internet and recruits potential holy warriors. The Civil Guard, Spain's rural police force, said Wednesday it detained the six men in the province of Burgos, in northwestern Spain. Authorities were searching six houses and a butcher's shop run by the group Wednesday and have confiscated documents and computer hard drives, the civil guard said in a statement. The arrests are part of an investigation that has established links between the Burgos group and Islamists in other countries and involved security agencies from Switzerland, the United States and Denmark. Authorities named the ringleaders as Abdelkader Ayachine, an Algerian, and his deputy Wissan Lotfi, a Moroccan. They did not give the nationalities of the other four men. The Civil Guard said the arrests marked the first time Spanish authorities have broken up a network principally dedicated to promoting jihad on the internet. The group was using private chat rooms and forums, disseminating Islamist propaganda on the Web and collecting money for imprisoned Islamists, officials said...