Spanish soldier arrested over Islamist videos

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish soldier and his Russian girlfriend were arrested on Tuesday for posting videos on the Internet calling for Islamist attacks in Spain, the National Police said.

Christian Peso Ruiz and Maria Choubina, both 24, were arrested in the city of Granada in Andalusia over the videos, which called for the recovery of territories in Spain -- known as Al Andalus -- which were under Muslim rule for hundreds of years, the police said in a news release.

"They wanted to use the Internet to distribute messages to encourage people in the Muslim world to carry out terrorist attacks in Spain, mixing nostalgic calls for the liberation of Al Andalus with praise of terrorists," the police said.

The pair posted up to 11 videos which received more than 2,000 hits.

Islamist bombers killed 191 people with bombs planted on Madrid trains on March 11, 2004, and police have subsequently broken up several other alleged Islamist terror plots. Al Qaeda has also spoken of the recovery of the historic lands of Al Andalus.