Spain: 11 Isis suspects arrested in Catalonia terror raids

Spanish police have arrested 11 people with suspected links to Islamic State (Isis) who were allegedly planning terror attacks in Catalonia.

Officers arrested 10 men and one woman, aged between 17 and 45, in raids in cities and towns including Barcelona and Tarragona on suspicion of crimes "linked to jihadist terrorism, particularly to the Islamic State group", police said in a statement.

Five of those arrested were Moroccan, five were from Spain and one was from Paraguay, said Catalonia's interior minister Ramon Espadaler. Six were said to be Muslim converts.

In recent months, a number of alleged IS cells have been broken up in Spain, including in the country's north African provinces Ceuta and Melilla.

They include an eight person group arrested in raids across the country in March who police claim were planning to target Spain's two royal princesses.

On 1 April, a woman in Barcelona was arrested after allegedly planning to send her twin sons to fight for IS in Syria.

Espadaler said that mosques suspected of hosting radical preachers were being watched by authorities: "There are some places that pose a problem and we are monitoring them."

Spanish authorities say that about 100 of its citizens have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight for IS.