Spain is seeing an unprecedented surge in home-grown Islamist extremism with more young Spanish Muslims than ever detained for links to terrorist groups in Syria, experts warned on Monday.
UPDATED: The leader of an Isis-linked terrorist cell broken up in Spain and Morocco on Friday is the brother of a former Spanish soldier, sources close to the ongoing investigation have said.
Spain will deploy 130 soldiers and anti-ballistic missiles to Turkey's southern border but won't take part in any actual fighting against terror group ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the country's Defence Minister announced on Wednesday.
Spain's Foreign Minister announced on Tuesday his government plans to amend the country's penal code so that Spaniards joining foreign conflicts and radical Islamic groups such as ISIS can be prosecuted on terrorism charges.
Spanish Police believe "between 30 and 40 people with Spanish passports", as well as many more Moroccan residents in Spain, have flown to Syria to fight as Islamic State rebels. Other authorities point to an even higher figure.
A top Spanish official has said country's security forces were remaining "vigilant" after two Syrian jihadists posted a video in which they promised to reclaim Spain in the name of Islam.
Two Spanish journalists taken hostage in Syria by an Al-Qaeda-linked group walked free after six months in captivity
and were reunited with their friends and family in Spain on Sunday.
The terror cell broken up on Friday by Spanish and Moroccan security forces was among the most active in Europe, the Spanish interior minister has said.
A Spanish journalist has been freed by Syrian rebels with links to Al-Qaeda after six months in captivity but two of his Spanish colleagues remain hostages of the jihadist faction.
A US naval ship was to stop in Spain on Thursday while it waits for Syrian authorities to hand over chemical weapons so it can destroy them at sea, diplomats said.
Supporters of the Syrian opposition kicked off two days of talks in Spain on Thursday to try to narrow their differences ahead of a planned peace conference, the Spanish government said.
Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy has rejected the US's request to store 15 tonnes of sarin and mustard gas waste from the Syrian conflict in a port in Catalonia, a Spanish newspaper reported on Thursday.
Spanish authorities on Tuesday remanded in custody without bail a Spanish-born man thought to belong to an Al-Qaeda-linked organization which may have kidnapped up to three Spanish journalists in Syria.
Colleagues and relatives of two Spanish reporters kidnapped by Al-Qaeda-linked radicals in Syria said on Tuesday they believed the pair were alive and well and urged their captors to free them.
A radical group linked to Al-Qaeda kidnapped two Spanish journalists reporting in Syria in September and is holding them captive, El Mundo newspaper reported on Tuesday.
A special correspondent in Syria for the Spanish newspaper El Periodico has been kidnapped in the war-torn country, the paper announced late on Monday in its online edition.
Spanish police on Monday arrested the suspected leader of a cell linked to Al-Qaeda that sent militants to Syria to carry out suicide bombings, the government said.
Spain's foreign affairs minister has ruled out direct intervention in Syria for the time being but says the country would consider allowing the United States to use its military bases if asked to do so.
The Spanish Government is playing a game of wait and see on Syria but a top official hinted on Thursday that the country was likely to line up with its allies in the event of a military intervention in the war-torn country.
Branches of the divided Syrian opposition held talks in Madrid on Monday seeking to harmonize their approach to the country's bloody civil war, their Spanish government hosts said.
Spain backs the formation of a national unity government in Syria as a way out of the country's two-year conflict, its foreign minister said in neighbouring Lebanon on Wednesday.
In 2011, a Spanish photojournalist was kidnapped in Libya by forces loyal to the dictator Colonel Gaddafi and spent six weeks in captivity. On Monday, he became just the second Spaniard to receive a prestigious Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Meet Manu Brabo, our latest Spanish Face of the Week.
