Authorities in Spain have broken up a ring dedicated to recruiting young women to join the ISIS militant group, the Associated Press reported. The Iberian country's action comes as a number of European nations are taking steps to stop citizens from traveling to Syria and Iraq given rising fears that some of them might return to carry out terrorist attacks.

Police in the Spanish north African enclave of Melilla arrested two suspected ISIS recruiters, and two individuals accused of spreading jihadist propaganda on the Internet were detained in the Catalan cities of Barcelona and Girona, according to a statement issued by the Interior Ministry.

The unidentified Melilla suspects "were dedicated to the recruitment of women who, after a process of indoctrination, would end up integrated into this terror group," the ministry added. They led a sophisticated online recruiting operation and held meetings, at which they showed potential recruits ISIS videos, it detailed.

The recruiters' efforts were apparently successful as a number of women had initiated preparations to move to the conflict zones where ISIS operates. The terror group, which refers to itself as the "Islamic State," controls large swaths of territory across Iraq and Syria and has recently expanded to countries in North Africa, most notably Libya.

One of the accused ran a "virtual community" with ISIS propaganda that had more than 1,000 subscribers, authorities told Agence France-Presse. The followers were based in Spain and more than half a dozen other countries across four continents, including Belgium, France, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey and the United States.

Officials raided the home of one of the suspects in Sant Vicenc dels Horts, a municipality about 14 miles from the Catalan capital of Barcelona. Relatives of the 36-year-old, who has lived in Spain since age 8, said they removed boxes containing computers.

The man's brother defended the Moroccan national.

"It's a lie that he is a terrorist. It's all lies. For him, Islam is peace," Hicham Belkadar said. "They accuse him because he posted videos and shared photos. He published photos about Islam, but it has nothing to do with terrorism. These people who cut heads don't represent Islam -- and my brother is not one of them."

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