Four suspected terrorists were arrested in Struga and Gostivar this morning, under suspicion that they were planning “events that could undermine the security of Macedonia and other countries”, said Interior Minister Pance Toskovski. Toskovski informed the public that the state prosecutor’s office for organized crime and high level corruption prepared the charges against the group.

We are talking about terrorist organizations, and four persons were detained. For a longer period of time they were in contact with persons who do not reside in Macedonia, and were followed by the relevant security services in cooperation with our international friends, with whom we coordinated the actions. We have sufficient evidence to support the suspicion that these persons were acting with the goal to, in the future, carry out unwanted events that could undermine the security of Macedonia and other countries. Their goal was to indoctrinate people in the Balkans who would act to accomplish their goals, Toskovski said.

The Interior Minister did not identify the backgroup of the groups, only stating that it was an “extremist religious group”. Several hundreds Macedonian citizens, mostly ethnic Albanians, joined ISIS and similar islamist groups during the Syrian war.