Charlie Smith
SPAIN has launched a new counter-terrorism strategy that focuses specifically on ISIS and Al Qaeda.
The plan targets conflict zones, prisons where people become radicalised and domestic terror cells.
It comes after an ISIS terrorist was arrested in Andalucia in January after he plotted to bomb Manilva Fair.
Before that, a home-grown Jihadist in Barcelona killed 16 people and injured 131 more when he rammed into pedestrians with a van.
“Most of the terrorist attacks committed in Europe were done by people radicalised in their own countries,” the new strategy says.
It adds that, ‘the rise of identity-based extremism with exclusionary positions,’ is ‘leading to violent dynamics and support for terrorism among minority sectors of our society’.
Returning terrorists, mainly to Madrid, Catalunya, Ceuta and Melilla, are the main focus of the new document, published on Tuesday.
The strategy comes at a time when many Jihadists are expected to return to Spain, as the US ends its military presence in Syria.
To prosecute some of those returning, the strategy recommends using DNA and document evidence in terrorism trials.
Over 230 Spaniards have left the country to fight with terrorist groups, of which 20% have returned and 25% have died.
Meanwhile, 140 people in Spain have been imprisoned for Jihadist offences and another 120, sent down for petty crimes, have been partially or fully radicalised.
This new plan replaces the old one that expired in 2017, and will be valid until 2023.
