Moroccan authorities said on Monday they had dismantled a
militant cell planning to create an Islamic State affiliate, seizing
weapons and bomb-making materials in raids on their hideouts.
The
cell is the latest in a series of radical groups Morocco says it has
uncovered. The group was operating in the southern city of Essaouira and
the central town of Sidi Allal Al-Bahraoui.
At the
offices of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ),
reporters were shown weapons, ammunition, tasers, swords and bomb
materials seized from hideouts. BCIJ is the judicial part of the
Moroccan domestic intelligence service.
The five members
of the group had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, and
planned to create a local offshoot, called the Caliphate Soldiers in
Morocco, bureau head Abdelhak Khayyam said.
The group's
name is inspired from the Algerian group of the Caliphate Soldiers, an
al Qaeda splinter faction that had declared allegiance to ISIS last year
before kidnapping and beheading a French tourist.
"The weapons came to Morocco through the eastern borders with Algeria," Khayyam said.
Hundreds
of fighters from Morocco and other Maghreb states like Tunisia and
Algeria have joined Islamist militant forces in Syria's war. Some are
threatening to return and create a new jihadi wings in their home
countries, security experts say.
Five members of the latest cell were planning to leave to Syria and Iraq after perpetrating an attack, authorities said.
Morocco,
a Western ally against Islamist militancy, often announces it has
broken up radical cells accused of plotting attacks. It has suffered
many bomb attacks by Islamist militants, most recently in 2011 in
Marrakesh.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/morocco-says-breaks-up-an/2126602.html
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