MADRID: Spanish authorities on Tuesday announced the breakup of a ring dedicated to recruiting young women to join the Islamic State extremist group, part of a push by European nations to stop citizens from traveling to Syria and Iraq, to reduce the risk of them returning home to carry out terror attacks.

Two suspected recruiters were arrested in the Spanish north African enclave of Melilla and two suspects accused of spreading IS propaganda online were detained in the northeastern cities of Barcelona and Girona, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The four were not identified but the ministry said the suspects arrested in Melilla “were dedicated to the recruitment of women who, after a process of indoctrination, would end up integrated into this terror group.”

Besides overseeing a sophisticated online recruiting operation, the two held meetings in homes to show potential recruits IS videos. Some them had started preparations to move to the conflict zones where IS operates, the ministry said.

Authorities were investigating whether the two arrested in Barcelona and Girona had connections with the alleged Melilla recruiters.

One of those arrested had a Facebook page with more than 1,000 followers, with particularly high penetration in parts of Spain identified as high-risk areas for radicalization, the ministry said.

Officials have said about 80 Spanish citizens have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join groups there and about a dozen have returned. Some have been jailed after coming home. Many more have headed to the countries from other European nations such as France.

Meanwhile, officials in Seoul said Tuesday that a teenager who went missing in Turkey last month is probably the first known South Korean to join the IS.

The director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, Lee Byung-kee, told legislators in a closed-door meeting that the 18-year-old man is now in Syria with an IS unit that trains combat personnel, opposition lawmaker Kim Kwang Jin said.

The man, identified only by his last name, Kim, was last seen leaving a hotel in the Turkish border town of Kilis on Jan. 10. An official from Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing office rules, confirmed that he would be the first known South Korean to join the militant group.

Kim’s religious beliefs are unclear, and Muslims are a very small minority in South Korea.