MADRID (AP) — Spanish and Moroccan authorities on Friday arrested seven suspected members of an al-Qaida-linked extremist cell allegedly recruiting members to fight in Syria and other hotspots.

Spain’s Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said the group leader, a Belgian-born Spaniard, and two French recruits were arrested in its North African coastal enclave of Melilla and another person, a Tunisian, in the southern resort city of Malaga.