Spain Intensifies Anti-Terror Efforts as Jihadist Threat Persists

The biggest security challenge for Spain this year is to anticipate and neutralize those citizens who have been fighters in conflict zones for the Islamic State and who have returned to the country after the fall of the caliphate, with the possible intention of carrying out attacks. According to the latest annual report on national security, 258 jihadists (227 men and 31 women) who left Spain were still in conflict zones in Syria or Iraq in 2021. Of this group, 57 have already returned to Spain and 76 are believed to have died.

Last summer, two foreign terrorist fighters with links to Spain were arrested, after an investigation by the general intelligence police. The two defendants went to Syria in 2014 where they joined the ranks of the jihadists and received military training to be able to fight, reports La Vanguardia. After several years spent in these combat zones, they moved to Turkey to then try to reach Europe. Thanks to an arrest warrant issued by the Audiencia Nacional, one was arrested in Austria, and the other in Mataró, a few days after his arrival in the province of Barcelona.

In 2022, Spain arrested 46 suspected jihadists during 27 police operations carried out in Catalonia and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Even if not all the fighters who return to the country intend to commit terrorist acts, some may do so "in relation to the organizations to which they remain loyal, by themselves or after having mobilized other individuals for a similar purpose", explains the Elcano Royal Institute in its latest report titled "Spain in the world 2023: security perspectives and challenges".