Spain arrests 'highly radicalized' Moroccan with suicide-bomb manual

Police officers patrol at Puerta del Sol square ahead of New Year's celebrations in central Madrid, Spain, December 31, 2016.
Police officers patrol at Puerta del Sol square ahead of New Year's celebrations in central Madrid, Spain, December 31, 2016.

REUTERS/Susana Vera

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police arrested a 32-year-old Moroccan in a dawn raid in central Madrid on Tuesday who they said was "highly radicalized" and had a large collection of extreme Islamist material including a manual for suicide bombers, the government said.

Police also arrested two other Moroccan men aged 38 and 33 who lived with the first man in the residential apartment, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Television images showed armed police in riot gear storming the apartment building before dawn and men dressed in white robes and motorcycle helmets being grappled to the ground and handcuffed outside the apartment block.

The man had an extremely dangerous profile, similar to that of those who carried out recent attacks in Britain and France, the government said, without giving further details.

He had tried to recruit others to carry out an Islamist attack in Spain, it said.

Spain has stepped up its anti-terror security operations in the years since the 2004 Al Qaeda train bombings in Madrid that killed nearly 200 people. They have made more than 700 arrests, and dozens of convictions have yielded 120 prisoners and no attacks since March 2004.

(Reporting by Sonya Dowsett; editing by Alison Williams)

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