MADRID
Spanish and Moroccan police detained nine men suspected of links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL on Friday.
The men were captured in the Spanish administered exclave of Melilla in northern Morocco and the Moroccan city of Nador during a joint Spanish-Moroccan operation against a terrorist cell that is allegedly linked to ISIL, according to Spain's Interior Ministry.
The nine people including one Spaniard and eight Moroccans were detained on early Friday, the Ministry said.
This is the fourth anti-terror operation conducted in Melilla this year, leading to the arrest of 24 people in total, bringing the number of terror suspects detained since 2013 up to 44.
Morocco said Friday that security agencies had arrested the members of a "terrorist cell" that had worked to recruit Moroccans to the militant Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
Morocco's Interior Ministry said in a statement that the cell had been comprised of nine people and had worked to recruit Moroccans to fight with ISIL in Iraq and Syria.
The ministry added that the cell had links with the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group in northern Mali.
This summer, ISIL seized large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, later declaring the territories under its control an Islamic "caliphate."
Under a new strategy unveiled by U.S. President Barack Obama earlier this month, the U.S. plans to lead an international coalition against the militant group throughout Iraq and Syria.
Washington and its allies have launched airstrikes against ISIL targets in both Iraq and Syria in recent days.
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