Three Moroccan-born men accused of plotting Charlie Hebdo-style attack in Spain

Three Moroccan-born men accused of being on the verge of launching Charlie Hebdo-type attacks in Spain have been arrested in Madrid, bringing to almost 60 the number of people detained this year accused of links with Islamist terror.

Spain’s Interior Minister, Jorge Fernandez Diaz, said the men, all of whom had Spanish residency papers, were preparing to strike. “These people were not attracting, indoctrinating, radicalising, recruiting people to send them to Syria or Iraq to join [Isis] and fight, but rather their aim was to act in Spain, which is a sensitive, differentiating factor,” he told a radio station.

“Look at what has happened in all the other countries... you have France in the north with the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and later attacks; also in other European countries, in Brussels, and in other countries that are not in Europe. It has all the hallmarks of attacks [Isis] carries out, from using a knife against a person, attacking him, to, well, a Kalashnikov.”

Spain has arrested more people with what it says are links to Isis than any other European country this year. The police raids this morning, in two districts of Madrid, came a day after the country’s former Prime Minister declared that Spain had been “a winner” from the 2003 Iraq war.

Jose Maria Aznar, who joined Tony Blair and George Bush in invading Iraq, said in a letter that Spain’s international influence had increased as a result of taking part in the conflict. “In terms of influence and international support for our goals, Spain came out a winner,” said Mr Aznar, who was voted out of office in 2004. The letter became public when published this week in a book by Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel García-Margallo.

Mr Aznar’s claim came a week after Mr Blair issued a qualified apology for the war, admitting that he bore partial responsibility for the rise of Isis.