Spanish Police Raid Barcelona Cell Suspected Of Plotting Attack

Spanish police staged a counter-terrorism operation in Barcelona and a nearby city on Tuesday against a cell suspected of plotting an attack, a police spokesman said

Barcelona, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jan, 2019 ) :Spanish police staged a counter-terrorism operation in Barcelona and a nearby city on Tuesday against a cell suspected of plotting an attack, a police spokesman said.

Fourteen people had been arrested in Barcelona and Igualada, 60 kilometres west of the Catalan capital, as part of the raid, the spokesman for Catalonia's Mossos d'Esquadra force told AFP.

"The goal (of the cell) was to attack but we are still investigating which places may have been targeted," he said.

More than 100 officers were taking part in the "counter-terrorism operation" launched by the Catalan Police force at six am (0500 GMT), the Mossos said on Twitter.

One person was arrested in Igualada while the rest were detained in Barcelona.

Police did not give any details on the suspects but Spanish media said they were North Africans.

Armed officers, wearing black ski masks, stood guard outside a building in central Barcelona as boxes and bags were removed from a flat, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.

The operation was ordered by Spain's High Court, which is charged with terrorism investigations, and it is focused on "the crimes of terrorism, public health offences and organised crime", the Mossos said. Barcelona was on alert last month after the US State Department warned off the risk of a terrorist attack in Spain's second-largest city over Christmas.