14-Year-Old Spanish Girl Held on Suspicion of Trying to Join Islamic State Isis

Fauzia Allal Mohamed was detained by Spanish police along with a 14-year-old minor.

Spanish police have detained a 14-year-old girl and a 19-year-old woman suspected of trying to join the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams. (Isis)

The teenagers were stopped by security forces as they tried to enter Morocco. The 19-year-old woman was named as Fauzia Allal Mohamed. The girl cannot be identified because she is a minor. Both are Spanish citizens.

A spokesperson for the Spanish Interior Ministry said: "The detention of two women recruited for jihad is a remarkable and unprecedented event in Spain. Both were trying to cross the border to Morocco with the aim of contacting the network which would move them immediately to a conflict zone between Syria and Iraq.

"Their intention was to join one of the cells of the terrorist the organisation of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, " the Spanish ministry added.

Video footage released by the Spanish authorities showed the pair, both wearing black niqabs, being led away from a small propeller plane, each flanked by balaclava-clad security men.

They were detained at the Beni Enzar border crossing in Melilla, one of two tiny Spanish territories on the North African coast, which share a border with Morocco.

Islamic State was declared an Islamic caliphate in Syria and Iraq on 30 June. Since then they have sought to recruit as many foreign fighters as possible, luring them via jihadist websites and forums and arranging their transfer to warzones.

"The two women detained in this police operation are a clear example of this," the interior ministry said. "Their radicalisation, recruitment and later dispatch as combatants were perfectly planned and organised by a network that operates across North Africa and has as its main goal getting the maximum number of unquestioning combatants."

The ministry said that the recruitment of a minor was evidence that the network had no regard for its targets' age or circumstance.

The Spanish government has said it fears that battle-hardened Islamist fighters may return to Spain from Syria and other conflict zones under the influence of al-Qaida-inspired groups, posing a threat of attacks.

Spanish security forces have led at least three significant raids on jihadist recruitment cells this year, arresting more than 20 people.

This year Spain marked the 10th anniversary of the Madrid train bombings. 191 people died in the bombings on 11 March 2004.

Since then, more than 470 suspected Islamist extremists have been arrested in Spain.

It was recently reported that a blind Isis militant fighting in Syria was urging others to join the group. The Dutch national identified as Taymullah al-Somali said disability was no obstacle to supporting the militant group.

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  By Priya Joshi
  August 4, 2014 20:09 BST