PARIS, March 1 (UPI) -- Three Chechens with suspected ties to an alleged terrorist cell in Spain have been arrested in France, Spanish authorities said Friday.
The Interior Ministry said the arrests were carried out jointly by France and Spain. They were based on information discovered in August when a series of raids in Linea de Concepcion, a Spanish town near Gibraltar, led to the arrest of suspected Islamic terrorists allegedly planning attacks on European targets.
The three recent arrests were made in northern France. Ali Dokaev was arrested in Noyon, about 60 miles northeast of Paris, and the other suspects in the Paris area, Elsy Issakov in Les Lilas and Mourad Idrissov in Genevieve des Bois.
All three are originally from Chechnya, a Muslim-majority Russian republic where separatists have fought two unsuccessful wars for independence in the past 20 years.
