WATCH: Jihadist terror cell planning attacks in Spain and Morocco smashed

A JIHADIST terror cell that was planning major attacks in Spain and Morocco has been dismantled.

Spanish and Moroccan authorities have arrested six jihadists who were planning large-scale terror attacks.

These arrests come less than three weeks after a group of jihadists, many of whom were of Moroccan origin, killed 16 in Barcelona and Cambrils with vehicles and knives.

Five of the group were Moroccans living in Spain.

The sixth detainee was the leader, a 39-year-old Spanish national from Melilla, an enclave of Spain in North Africa.

A spokesman for the Spanish Interior Ministry said: “He used his position as an assistant teacher in a centre for educating minors to carry out recruitment activities and to radicalise young people in a vulnerable situation.

“This type of activity is in line with the global strategy of the so-called Islamic State.”

They revealed that the group held clandestine nightly meetings where they would plan large-scale massacres, undertake physical training and simulate murder by decapitation.

With its origins in Beni Chikerm a small town in Nador, Morocco, the band of terrorists had planned a number of executions in Morocco and Spain.

Since mid-2015, Spain has arrested 199 people accused of links to extremism.