[MAGHAREBIA] The Moroccan security services just caught a terrorist cell that allegedly recruited and sent young jihadists to fight in Syria.
"These fighters were sent in co-ordination with representatives of terrorist organizations linked to al-Qaeda, especially the Sham al-Islam movement, Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original...
," the interior ministry said Saturday (April 12th).
The Moroccan volunteers receive specialised training in the use of weapons, explosives and suicide kabooms so that they can return to home to carry out terrorist operations, according to the ministry.
"As well as selling their belongings, the members of the dismantled cell collected donations from people who sympathised with their jihadist beliefs to pay for volunteers to travel to Syria and fight there after recruiting them and explaining various security precautions to them at meetings held at a house used especially for that purpose," the interior ministry stated.
Abdelkhaleq Al Mouloudi, a communications expert, explained that "as well as providing mere information, the interior ministry's statement reveals how al-Qaeda is exploiting the Syrian conflict to influence young Moroccans and involve them in its terrorist plans."
"The dismantling of this terrorist cell shows that the number of jihadists who want to fight in Syria is growing all the time, yet paradoxically, the number of Moroccan fighters who are dying is rising too," commented Mahmoud Hanine, a journalist who writes about terrorism for a Casablanca daily.
"Tens of hundreds of Moroccans belonging to Harakat Sham al-Islam, Jabhat al-Nusra, which is closely linked to al-Qaeda, and the Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
(FSA) have been killed in the Syrian war and the case of Annas Al Haloui, the front man for salafist prisoners, who died just three months after arriving in Latakia, is proof of this," said Moussa Al Mouritani, an expert on Islamist movements.
He said it was important to remember that the Moroccan jihadist troops who arrive in Syria via Turkey are trained by the Saudi cheikh Abdullah al-Mohaisany, as well as veterans from the Afghanistan war.
"But now, we are seeing a reversal of the situation because for various reasons, the fighting, which was supposed to be against Bashir al-Assad's troops, has turned into an aggressive confrontation between jihadists from various fighting brigades," he said.
Mostafa Belmaalem, a sociologist, said that a combination of factors attract young people to go and wage jihad in Syria.
"The concept of Umma al-Islamia (the Islamic Nation) is a fundamental factor which contributes to the desire to go to Syria to help Sunni Moslems who are being ill-treated by the Syrian regime's army," Belmaalem said.
Ahmed Wafid lives in Derb Soltane in Casablanca. His neighbour Brahim, a young man aged no more than about thirty, died in the Syrian conflict and left behind a family of two girls, their mother and his parents.
"I still can't understand where he suddenly got the idea of going to fight in Syria from, but Brahim showed no signs of radicalism. He loved rai singing and looked after his two little girls very well," said Wafid, who is upset about his family's miserable situation since his death. 
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