Guantanamo Bay detainee arrested in Spain

A former Guantanamo Bay inmate was arrested by Spanish police under suspicion of jihadist activities relating to Iraq and Syria.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Lahcen Ikassrien was one of the 10 men arrested on June 16 during a series of dawn raids conducted across Spain. The 10 men were held on suspicion of recruiting men to fight for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant/Syria (ISIS), a terrorist organization that has been fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Pray for peace in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.

The Moroccan was arrested in Afghanistan back in 2001 and had been held at Guantanamo Bay until he was extradited to Spain in 2005. In 2006 he was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.

Spain's National Court announced that all of the men-eight Moroccans, an Argentinean and a Bulgarian- would soon appear in court.

Three men have also been arrested in Germany over links to terrorist groups.

In Berlin, a prosecutor's spokesman took in a 30-year-old French man suspected of "supporting a terrorist organization" by fighting for ISIS in Syria. He was wounded in the fighting there and is thought to have been arrested after arriving in Germany from Istanbul. Courts will decide whether or not to extradite him to France.

The German police also arrested a 27-year-old German woman at Frankfurt Airport, and a 17-year-old German in Stuttgart, both of whom have been linked to Islamist extremist groups.

Numerous Europeans have traveled to Iraq and Syria to fight for ISIS, and Spanish police believe that there may be as many as 50 Spaniards fighting in that country.

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