Three suspected ISIS extremists held in Spain

Madrid - Three suspected backers of the extremist group Islamic State have been arrested in Spain, the Interior Ministry in Madrid said on Saturday.

The two men and one woman had been taken in the autonomous region of Catalonia in the north-east of the country, it said.

The men, aged 42 and 32 and hailing from Tangiers in Morocco, were arrested in the city of Barcelona, where they were sharing accommodation. They had been spreading the ideology of Islamic State via social networking sites, targeting in particular young women.

The 24-year-old woman was arrested in Granollers, about 30km northeast of Barcelona. She had been planning to join ISIS in the Syrian civil war.

According to official figures, 68 suspected backers of Islamic State have been arrested so far this year.

The only time there had been more arrests was in 2005, when police detained 95 people in the aftermath of the Islamist attacks on several Madrid trains which killed 191 on March 11,