Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska on Tuesday commended Morocco as a “strategic partner” in the fight against terrorism, and hailed its cooperation with Spain in this field.

“Morocco is an absolutely strategic partner in the fight against terrorist cells,” stressed the Spanish minister, in statements to the press, following the dismantling earlier in the day of a terrorist cell allegedly linked to the Islamic State. The cell members were nabbed thanks to cooperation between the security services of the two countries.

Grande-Marlaska said that cooperation between Morocco and Spain “has allowed us to dismantle dangerous jihadist networks.”

In this sense, the Spanish official highlighted “the effectiveness” and “the firmness” of joint actions to move forward in the fight against terrorism, welcoming the tangible results achieved in this area.

The Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) succeeded Tuesday, in a joint and simultaneous security operation with the General Intelligence Station of the Spanish National Police, to dismantle a terrorist cell operating in Nador and Melilla, allegedly linked to the Islamic State.

Two men, aged 34 and 39, were nabbed in the Moroccan Northeastern city of Nador and nine others were captured in the Spanish enclave of Melilla in the operation.

The members of the busted cell were promoting extremist ideology on social media networks with the aim of recruiting vulnerable people for their obscurantist terror projects.

Mobile phones, SIM cards, a computer and digital material were found by the police while searching their premises. According to preliminary investigation, the emir of the terrorist cell had links with the jihadist network dismantled in December 2019 in the suburbs of Madrid and Nador.