Jihadist backers arrests by Spanish police

Officials said the arrests came early yesterday in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on the northwest African coast, surrounded by Morocco and the Mediterranean Sea.

A ministry statement said the group was suspected of sending dozens of potential fighters from Spain and Morocco to Syria, some of whom had carried out suicide attacks. It says others had been sent to training camps.

The ministry said the group gathered recruits and provided them with the money and the means to travel abroad under the orders of al-Qaida.

Details of the identities of those arrested were not immediately available.