Spain arrested eight men in pre-dawn raids in Madrid on Monday suspected of recruiting militants for Islamist group ISIL led by a former Guantanamo Bay inmate

Spain arrested eight men in pre-dawn raids in Madrid on Monday suspected of recruiting militants for Islamist group ISIL led by a former Guantanamo Bay inmate.

The cell found and dispatched recruits for ISIL militants based in Syria and Iraq, Spain's interior ministry said in a statement.

The men had helped to send recruits through to the Middle East where they would join ISIL, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

“It should be highlighted that the leader of this cell lived in Spain after passing through Guantanamo, having been arrested in Afghanistan in 2001,” it said, without providing further details.

Police have so far launched 12 raids, detaining eight people, and the investigation remains open, the ministry said.