The creator of the US TV series The Wire became embroiled in a bitter online dispute in Spain on Tuesday after announcing that he is working on a series about an American battalion fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

David Simon was forced to fend off claims he was stirring current political conflict by reopening historical wounds following the announcement of the project with the Barcelona-based Mediapro group in Variety magazine.

The Civil War and subsequent Franco dictatorship remains a deeply sensitive issue in Spain, where an amnesty law implemented following the transition to democracy in 1978 has for decades smothered investigation of the regime years.

The issue has become highly politicised during the course of the Catalan independence bid, supporters and opponents of which frequently exchange Civil War-era barbs of “fascist” and “traitor”.

The drama series, “A Dry Run”, will follow American fighters in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion who came to Spain from the US to fight the fascists in the 1936-39 conflict.

Quoted by Variety on Monday, Mr Simon said the war and the "maelstrom" that followed still had global resonance. “When the Spanish Republic was threatened, capitalism chose tyranny. So the better men who could not abide that choice came to Spain [to fight]. Today, that same choice confronts us again”.