A 23-year-old man has been arrested in Morocco, in a joint anti-terrorist operation with Spain, over an alleged plan to attack Spain’s Holy Week festivities.

The suspect’s name is Zouhair el Bouhdidi and he is a student at the University of Seville. According to police sources in Spain, the young man was preparing an imminent attack against the processions of Holy Week in Seville, one of the most important events of the Catholic calendar. According to the newspaper El Confidencial, el Bouhdidi has already confessed to the Moroccan police his plans to commit a “large-scale massacre” in the Andalusian city. The Spanish secret services had reportedly been following him for several weeks.

Holy Week in Seville is a celebration declared as a Fiesta of International Tourist Interest. Nearly 70 brotherhoods come out in procession with wooden sculptures depicting scenes of the Passion of Christ between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. The procession called La Madrugada—on the night of Thursday into Good Friday—brings together hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world, crowded through the narrow streets of Seville.

El Bouhdidi allegedly intended to attempt the attack this week in Seville with a homemade explosive known as “the mother of Satan.” It is the same type of explosive that terrorists prepared in the attack on Barcelona ​​in August of 2017, and in the attack on the Bataclan in Paris in November 2015.

Spanish police are now investigating the home of the alleged jihadist. El Bouhdidi lives in Su Eminencia (‘His Eminence’), a humble neighborhood of Seville. Neighbors say that he had never caused problems, although he did not really associate with others, and that the blinds in his house used to be closed. His recent trip to Morocco has been interpreted by the police as a possible farewell visit to his family.

Spain’s CNI (National Intelligence Center) is investigating whether el Bouhdidi was inspired by, or connected to, a video that the Islamic State published in recent days, in which they threatened to attack the religious celebrations of Holy Week in Spain. The video has been broadcast by several jihadist groups on Telegram and includes images of the attacks in Barcelona and crowds of people participating in the processions of Holy Week in Spain.

The threats against Spain have been spread on social networks by the Muntasir Media Foundation, which is responsible for propagating jihadist messages and which had already threatened Spain last December. The recent video encouraged attacks against Holy Week in Andalusia, the region of Spain that corresponds to Al Andalus, which was Muslim territory before the Reconquest. Recovering Al Andalus is an old obsession for jihadists and often appears in many of their propaganda messages.

The thwarted attack would have taken place only 11 days before the general elections in Spain. In 2004, three days before the general elections, the Madrid bombings ripped through the heart of Spain’s capital, leaving 193 dead and more than 2,000 injured. Since then, the Spanish police have doubled up on terrorism protection in the days before each major election.

A suicide attack in Holy Week in Seville would have certainly claimed many victims, in addition to causing a huge international media panic. On the other hand, one of the great dangers of La Madrugada—the most famous procession—are the stampedes: In 2017, more than a hundred people were wounded after a stampede was set off by eight mischief-makers, who had been recruited through social networks for a dangerous prank.

One of the issues on the table in the electoral campaign is the possibility of tightening laws and borders to prevent the entry of jihadists, potentially hiding among other immigrants, into Spain. This is one of the proposals of the far-right party VOX, which has been growing in popularity in Spain according to all the polls. The president of Spain and main socialist candidate are both against hardening the laws. In recent weeks the controversy over the entry of jihadists in Spain has been present in all media and is generating polarized positions among the Spanish. </s> The intelligence and police services of the two countries conducted an anti-terrorist operation that ended in the arrest of the "alleged jihadist," said the statement.

Contacted by AFP, the ministry refused to say whether the suspect intended to carry out the attack this week, during the world-famous processions that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Spanish police were on Wednesday afternoon searching his home in Seville.

Spain is on level-four terror alert out of a maximum of five.

The country has twice been struck by major jihadist attacks.

In what is still Europe's deadliest in March 2004, bombs exploded on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people in an attack claimed by Al Qaeda-inspired extremists.

Then in August 2017, a double attack left 16 dead in Barcelona and the seaside resort of Cambrils. </s> Police in Spain on Tuesday arrested 17 men connected to a suspected network of Islamic State supporters, five of whom are accused of forming a terror cell planning to launch attacks in Barcelona, with the rest suspected of having stolen passports from tourists to support the aspiring jihadists.

The group had been the subject of covert investigation for 18 months, Catalonia’s regional police force said, meaning the probe started at a similar time to the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils of August 2017 in which 16 died.

Speaking after the raids, Miquel Buch, Catalonia’s interior chief, said there had been no risk “at any time” of the group pulling off an attack as they were being closely tracked by the police with support from Spain’s CNI secret service.

“Those arrested wanted to commit attacks, but that doesn’t mean they had the actual capacity to carry out a terrorist act”, Mr Buch said.

Five men aged between 33 and 44 were believed to have made up the hardcore of the cell. Police said three of them are from Algeria, while one is Libyan the other Iraqi. All of the suspects lived in Barcelona. </s> A Frenchman has been arrested after sparking a terror scare at Barcelona's Sagrada Familia when he was caught carrying five handgun magazines for a 9mm pistol.

A small dagger and a 'semiautomatic knife' are also thought to have been discovered in a rucksack he was carrying when he tried to get into the city centre temple.

Police are said to have found a weapon with its series number erased in his car, which was parked nearby.

The man, understood to be a soldier, was being held this morning in police cells ahead of a behind-closed-doors court appearance. The arrest happened just before 5.30pm yesterday.

Sagrada Familia security guards alerted cops after detecting the munition in a rucksack as the Frenchman passed through a metal detector on his way into the Gaudi-designed temple, one of the intended targets of the terrorists behind the August 17 2017 Las Ramblas massacre.

Local reports said Spanish authorities had confirmed he was a soldier after he claimed he had been doing shooting practice in the south of France and left the magazines in his rucksack by mistake.

The detainee, who was with his girlfriend, is said to have cooperated fully with police.

A spokesman for the regional Mossos d'Esquadra said he was unable to confirm reports the Frenchman was a soldier or the possibility he was planning a terror attack had been ruled out because the investigation 'remained open.'

He said: 'The investigation remains open. All I can confirm at this stage is a man has been arrested in the vicinity of the Sagrada Familia.

'He is currently in police custody. He can be held for up to 72 hours so he could go before a judge today or tomorrow.

'He was arrested on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons.'

Last week it emerged police in Barcelona had been warned a Moroccan man could carry out a terror attack on Christmas Day.

Officers were told the Casablanca-born terrorist may try to commit a spectacular massacre in the Catalan capital using a coach or similar type of vehicle.

The terror warning was highlighted by several Spanish papers on Christmas Eve who said they had seen an internal alert sent to regional Mossos d'Esquadra officers.

The revelation surfaced after the US state department tweeted: 'Spain. Exercise heightened caution around areas of vehicle movement including buses in the Las Ramblas area of Barcelona during Christmas and New Year.

'Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, and other public areas.'

Catalan Interior Minister Miquel Buch later confirmed the existence of the terror alert.

He said in a radio interview: 'It's one more of those we receive. No doubt this case is a little different because of the US State Department tweet.

'All are investigated and worked on thoroughly. This is one more.'

Moroccan Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, used a rented van to mow down and kill 15 people including British-born Julian Cadman, seven, in Barcelona's famous Las Ramblas on August 17 2017.

More than 130 people were injured.

Police shot dead Younes in vineyards in Subirats an hour's drive west of Barcelona after he went on the run following the Barcelona massacre. He was later buried in an unmarked grave in a funeral held in secret in his homeland.

The terrorists behind the deadly Barcelona attack, and another hours later in nearby Cambrils, had planned to use butane gas cylinders to blow up iconic landmarks including the Sagrada Familia.

More than 20 butane gas canisters were found intact in the wreckage of their bomb factory.

Traces of triacetone triperoxide, a peroxide-based explosive known as TATP or the Mother of Satan which police believe the terror gang were going to use to detonate the gas, were also discovered. </s> MADRID -- Authorities in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia said 17 people, including five alleged members of an extremist Islamist cell, were arrested Tuesday as part of an ongoing anti-terror operation.

As well as having terror links, the suspects also allegedly participated in theft, drug trafficking and other crimes, according to the Mossos d'Esquadra regional police.

More than 100 agents took part in the operation, which was ongoing as of mid-afternoon, a spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said six venues had been searched in and near Barcelona, the regional capital. She declined to be identified by name in line with the police force's standard practices.

Catalan regional minister of security, Miquel Buch, told reporters most of the arrests took place in a central Barcelona neighbourhood, but some were made in the nearby town of Igualada.

The five suspected of being part of an extremist cell were originally from Algeria, Buch told reporters.

“They were determined about carrying out an attack, but they didn't have the capacity for it,” he said.

Investigating magistrate Manuel Garcia-Castellon of the National Court, which normally handles terror-related probes in Spain, ordered the arrests and will be interrogating those who remain in custody later this week, a court spokesman told The Associated Press, following customary rules of anonymity.

Also Tuesday, authorities in southern Spain's Malaga arrested a 27-year-old Moroccan national who police said they suspect could be linked to the Islamic State group. The man allegedly used several social network profiles to express violent views and allegiance to the extremist group. </s> Barcelona — Spanish police mounted a counter-terrorism operation in Barcelona and a nearby city on Tuesday against a cell suspected of plotting an attack, local officials said.

Officers arrested 17 people in Barcelona and Igualada, 60km west of the Catalan capital, as part of the raid, Catalonia’s Mossos d’Esquadra police force said.

The suspects “intended to carry out an attack”, but police work “ensured that at no moment did they have the capacity to carry out these actions”, Catalan interior minister Miquel Buch said.

More than 100 officers were taking part in the “counter-terrorism operation” launched by the Catalan police force at 6am, the Mossos said on Twitter.

One person was arrested in Igualada while the rest were detained in Barcelona.

Police did not give any details on the suspects but Spanish media said they were North Africans.

Armed officers, wearing black ski masks, stood guard outside a building in central Barcelona as boxes and bags were removed from a flat, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.

The operation was ordered by Spain’s high court, which is charged with terrorism investigations, and it is focused on “the crimes of terrorism, public health offences and organised crime”, the Mossos said.

Barcelona, Spain’s most visited city, was on alert in December after the US state department warned of the risk of a terrorist attack in Spain’s second-largest city over Christmas.

Spanish media reported at the time that the authorities were looking for a Moroccan man with a licence to drive buses.

The reports said it was not clear if the man was in Spain or not.

On August 17 2017, a van rammed crowds on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas boulevard, killing 14 people and injuring over 130 others. The 22-year-old Moroccan driver then stole a car after killing the driver and fled.

Several hours later five of his accomplices mowed down pedestrians on the promenade of the seaside resort of Cambrils, south of Barcelona, before stabbing a woman to death.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, Spain’s worst since the Madrid train bombings in 2004 when 191 people died and more than 1,800 were injured.

Spain has had its terrorist alert at the second-highest level since 2015. Catalonia has a long history of Islamist militant activity. A member of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group was uncovered in the region in 1995.

Mohamed Atta, who flew a passenger plane into a tower of the World Trade Center on September 11 2001, in New York, spent time in Catalonia shortly before the attacks.

In 2008, a plot targeting Barcelona’s metro system was foiled when it was in its advanced stages.

One in four people detained in Spain over extremist Islamist-linked terrorism come from the province of Barcelona in Catalonia, according to a study published in 2017 by the Real Instituto Elcano, a Spanish think-tank, which called the province the country’s “main centre of jihadist activity”. </s> Three men held in Marrakech as suspicions grow that Islamists were behind killing of two Scandinavian women

Danish intelligence services are investigating a video circulating on social media they believe could show the murder of two Scandinavian women killed in Morocco as fears mount that the tourists were killed by extremists linked to Islamic State.

The Danish intelligence service, the PET, at first said it had authenticated the video but later rowed back, saying it was still being “examined”. The latest statement came as Moroccan authorities arrested three more suspects over the killings in the Atlas mountains, which have sent shockwaves through a popular tourist destination that has been relatively untouched by Islamist attacks.

The Moroccan government spokesman, Mustapha El Khalfi, described the killings as a “criminal and terrorist act”.

Investigators have released pictures of the three fugitives, who were identified as Rachid Afatti, Ouaziad Younes and Ejjoud Abdessamad. The three men were arrested in Marrakech as they tried to board a bus to the popular tourist resort of Agadir, according to a national security spokesman, Boubker Sabik, who said police were investigating whether they had terrorist affiliations.

Investigators were in the process of “verifying the terrorist motive, which is supported by the evidence and the findings of inquiries”, the central judicial investigations office said.

The men were seized with three long machete-like knives, a shorter blade, a slingshot and several mobile phones. Another suspect arrested in Marrakech on Tuesday had affiliations to an extremist group, Moroccan authorities said, and had apparently identified the others involved.

Pictures of the three men arrested on the bus also appear to show at least one man bearing a striking similarity to one of four individuals who had recently posted on social media declaring his allegiance to Isis while posing under the group’s flag.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Composite image of the three arrested men, Rachid Afatti, left, Ouaziad Younes, centre, and Ejjoud Abdessamad. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The discovery of machetes with handles wrapped with electrical tape under the seats of the bus will raise questions of whether they planned a second assault, perhaps in Agadir.

The bodies of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, were found on Monday in an isolated area near Imlil, which is on the route to Toubkal, north Africa’s highest peak and a popular hiking destination.

According to some local media reports the killers had camped near their victims, about four miles’ hike from the nearest town, and fled the scene after the attack. The bodies were found on Monday by two French women who were hiking near the remote spot where Jespersen and Ueland had pitched their tent.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, left, and Maren Ueland. Photograph: vg

“We took a picture to show the police where we found them and went down again,” one of the witnesses told the Norwegian tabloid VG. “We warned everyone we saw [in the nearby town of] Imlil from going there. I did not want more to see what we had seen.”

In an earlier statement PET said Moroccan authorities had indicated that the killings may be related to Isis. That speculation was fuelled by claims on Morocco’s 2M television network that investigators had linked the first of the four people arrested over the murder to the terror group.

Moroccan television broadcast an interview with the brother of one of the three men arrested on the bus who suggested his sibling had been “brainwashed” by militants.

“He had no education and was brainwashed,” said the brother adding that his sibling had disappeared a week ago. “He was a normal guy, but was radicalised. What happened has nothing to do with Islam.”

The latest claims over the motive came as fresh details emerged of the two women’s last days. They had stayed in a hostel where they encountered a local mountain guide, Rachid Imerhade, who said he had cautioned them about camping alone on their planned ascent of the Toubkal mountain.

Moroccan media outlets reported that investigators also had video surveillance footage showing the suspects putting up a tent near the victims’ tent and leaving the area after the killings.

The murders can be considered “politically motivated and thus an act of terror”, the Danish prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said on Thursday. He said “there are still dark forces that want to fight our values” and “we must not give in”.

In Norway, the prime minister, Erna Solberg, said terrorism “is not the only lead that is being investigated in Morocco” but said the case still “emphasises the importance of combating violent extremism”.

Jespersen had posted on Facebook about her upcoming trip before leaving. “Dear friends, I’m going to Morocco in December. Any of you guys who’s around by then or any mountain friends who knows something about Mount Toubkal?”

In the videos that have been circulating, a voice can reportedly be heard speaking of the “enemies of Allah” several times and referring to “revenge for our brothers in Hajin”, referring to the last stronghold of Isis in Syria, which fell a few days ago.

The two victims were friends from the University of South-Eastern Norway, where they were studying together. “What we know is that they were on a month-long, private holiday in Morocco. Our thoughts go to the families,” the university said.

The killings have prompted concerns about the impact on Morocco’s tourist sector, which accounts for 10% of national income, as the kingdom’s relative security has been a major selling point. </s> Ten members of a jihadist cell linked to the Islamic State group (IS) who planned attacks in Barcelona and to film a decapitation were sentenced to 8-12 years in jail on Tuesday.

The defendants included five Moroccans, four Spaniards and a Brazilian, the National Court, which handles terror cases, said in a ruling.

They were "ready to wage an attack against institutions such as the police, banks or Jewish institutions in Spain at any time, or to join the ranks of Daesh," it added, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

The cell was based in Terrassa, not far from Barcelona, the Catalonian capital.
• Jihadist terrorists have long had Spain in their sights – here's why
• US intellience warned Spain of planned Barcelona attack in May, report claims

Last year, another jihadist group killed 16 people in attacks there and on the nearby popular seaside city of Cambrils.

The 10, whose cell was called "Islamic Fraternity, Group for preaching jihad," were sentenced for "belonging to a terrorist organisation'" the court said.

The three leaders of the group were given 12 years in jail while the seven others got eight years.

In March 2015, the main leader of the cell, a Spaniard who had converted to Islam, proposed to kidnap and decapitate an "infidel" whom he had already identified, film the killing and then broadcast the video online before fleeing to Syria.

He had previously proposed that the group "commit an attack against the Catalan parliament, which no one had objected to," according to the court ruling.

"He also justified decapitations and talked about making handmade bombs to commit attacks."

Police found documents calling for jihad at his home and books on European organisations such as the Basque separatist group ETA or Germany's far-left Red Army Faction, the ruling said.

Members of the cell had also gone on a recce in Barcelona, the Catalonian capital, where they took photos of the train station, a luxury seaside hotel, a shopping mall and a police station.

One member went to Syria in April 2014 and died in Fallujah in Iraq the following year.

Three others tried to follow in his footsteps at the end of 2014 but were detained at the border between Bulgaria and Turkey.

According to the interior ministry, close to a third of all arrests for "jihadist terrorism" in Spain were made in Catalonia last year. </s> COPS have launched a major operation amid fears of a terror plot, it has emerged this morning.

Police confirmed they have made a string of arrests in Barcelona and another in nearby Igualada as part of the ongoing probe. Officers are thought to be targeting a jihadist support network. Detectives stormed five properties in the Catalan capital and a sixth in Igualada, a town an hour’s drive north west of Barcelona. Up to a dozen suspects could be detained, police sources claim.

“Terrorism is a global threat and we all have to maximise security.” The operation is being coordinated by the Audiencia Nacional – a Madrid-based central criminal court. A regional police spokesperson said: “A police counter-terrorism operation has been launched. “We are carrying out six raids in Barcelona and Igualada following a lengthy operation coordinated by the Audiencia Nacional. “The operation is ongoing. More than 100 officers from different units are taking part. “Several arrests are taking place in Barcelona and one in Igualada as part of an operation relating to terrorism and other crimes including membership of a criminal organisation.”

The suspects, thought to be Algerian and Moroccan, are believed to be part of a terror cell that was in the infancy of planning an attack. And they allegedly stole passports and other ID from tourists to use as part of their plot, local reports claim. It comes just months after Moroccan national Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, used a rented van to mow down and kill 15 people including British-born Julian Cadman, seven, in Barcelona’s famous Las Ramblas on August 17 last year. More than 130 people were injured in the bloodbath.

Last month police in Barcelona revealed fears a Moroccan man could carry out a terror attack in the city on Christmas Day. Officers were told the Casablanca-born terrorist may try to commit a spectacular massacre in the Catalan capital using a coach or similar type of vehicle. The terror warning was highlighted by several Spanish papers on Christmas Eve who said they had seen an internal alert sent to regional Mossos d’Esquadra officers. The revelation surfaced after the US state department tweeted: “Spain. Exercise heightened caution around areas of vehicle movement including buses in the Las Ramblas area of Barcelona during Christmas and New Year.

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Moroccan authorities arrest a jihadist preparing to commit a terrorist attack in Seville, Spain, during the Holy Week processions.