The “man” suspected of planning Friday’s terrorist the attacks on Paris was named specifically for having tried to recruit women living in Spain for Islamic State through the use of social media.
The information came from Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz.
"This person, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, tried to recruit Spaniards, especially women, though social networks to join and fight with Daesh," he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
"This was not to carry out attacks in Spain. Regarding this we have no knowledge," he added.
French prosecutors confirmed on Thursday that Abaaoud had been killed in a protracted gun battle with police on Wednesday morning.
The Spanish interior minister said that the terror group had tried to recruit women to “repopulate the caliphate”.
The minister said Islamic State has focused on recruiting women to "repopulate the caliphate" which it proclaimed in 2014 in the huge swathes of Syria and Iraq under its control.
Spanish police have arrested several women this year on suspicion of recruiting women and teenage girls for Islamic State jihadists, including a 22-year-old Spanish woman who was arrested at Madrid airport on suspicion that she was planning to join the extremists in Syria.
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