Gib listening post led to terror arrests - report

Hi-tech listening posts in Gibraltar and Cyprus operated by GCHQ, the UK’s signals intelligence organisation, identified “at least three” active Islamic State cells in Spain and Germany, it was claimed yesterday.

The UK tabloid newspaper The Mirror reported that 50 people with suspected links to IS had been seized in Europe and North Africa over the last three months thanks to British intelligence.

They included five suspects arrested last week by police in Spain, Belgium and Germany, the newspaper said.

This is the latest in a string of articles by The Mirror claiming that signals intelligence gathered from Gibraltar and Cyprus has been used to target suspected terrorists.

The British Government would neither confirm nor deny the reports.

““We do not comment on intelligence matters,” a Foreign Office spokesman told the Chronicle.