by Our Foreign Desk

SPANISH and Moroccan police arrested 10 suspected recruiters for the Islamic State (Isis) terror group yesterday.

The arrests coincided with a call from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for countries which are supporting armed groups in the country to stop doing so. Isis is believed to have received extensive assistance from Turkey and Saudi Arabia, while the United States has armed and trained other rebels, some of whom have joined Isis and others who fight alongside the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.

Mr Assad’s remarks, made during an Iranian TV interview, gave explicit backing to the Russian air war against Isis and said its chances of success — if combined with co-ordinated action by Syria, Iraq and Iran — were “big, not small.”

But defeating the genocidal organisation would be much easier if its foreign lines of support were cut off, he argued.

The alternative could mean “the destruction of the whole region,” he warned. Isis controls large swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory. Many of its fighters do not come from the countries themselves but have travelled from elsewhere, including western Europe.

Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said the 10 arrested were part of a “very important recruitment platform” dedicated to “the indoctrination, radicalisation and transport of individuals to jihadist combat zones.” It had specialised in recruiting women, he said.

Four were seized in Spain and six in Morocco.

The international aspect of the war was highlighted too by the admission by Jordanian MP Mazen Dalaeen that his son, who “had everything, a family, money, and (was) studying medicine,” had dropped it all and carried out a suicide bombing for Isis in Iraq.