The State Security Forces and Corps have begun to look with special concern at the succession of attacks by immigrants recorded in recent days and fear that the attacks against the devices deployed in Ceuta may not be isolated incidents.
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Security sources consulted by this newspaper warn that, after two ambushes on soldiers in just 48 hours leaving five injured, the possibility is being considered that there may be an organized dynamic of harassment and that some of these groups are studying new ways to ambush the agents deployed in the city.
The main concern among police and military officials— the latter demanding to be considered as authority agents— is that the attacks end up becoming a recurring practice. The temporal succession of stone throwing at soldiers and National Police riot agents, combined with the use of surprise and knowledge of the movements of the forces, has raised the alert level among the group, who consider it necessary to take extreme precautions against the possibility of new attacks occurring.
However, for the moment there is no evidence of an organized structure behind these events nor that a joint plan has been proven. The Civil Guard has detained four Moroccan men—one of them a minor— after the second ambush on soldiers in Ceuta in two days. The attackers had prepared the attack and, according to sources from the investigation revealed to EL MUNDO, were waiting for the military patrol to pass to charge against them.
After the ambush, a sergeant was slightly injured, according to sources from the Spanish Troop and Navy Association ATME. The immigrants threw stones indiscriminately at the group of soldiers and, as in the ambush on the early morning of last Thursday, the Army members were unarmed and also did not carry the necessary equipment to protect themselves. The aggression did not escalate because at that moment a patrol from the Rapid Action Group (GAR) of the Civil Guard, deployed to the autonomous city, was passing by.
This is the second attack to occur in less than a week in the autonomous city. Last Thursday, 12 immigrants were arrested after assaulting an Army vehicle with stones and injuring four soldiers. The arrested also threw sticks and used knives. A judge ordered the expulsion of eleven of them.
ATME has denounced that the soldiers “continue to be the target of aggressions and attacks” in the autonomous city and has requested more resources so they can perform their duties “in the proper way and be able to repel any type of aggression, having the stipulated and ordered means of defense.”
“Day after day, they have to endure not only physical aggressions but also total psychological harassment with insults and accusations,” it denounces.
The PP has demanded that soldiers be granted recognition as authority agents so they have greater legal and judicial support.
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