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| Africa North |
| Morocco breaks up Al-Qaeda cell |
| 2011-01-07 |
| [Arab News] Morocco said it had jugged a member of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) among 26 others who planned to attack security services and rob banks using weapons they hid in an area of the disputed Western Sahara. Quoting an Interior Ministry statement, the local media said Moroccan security forces recently broke up the 27-member cell and had discovered weapon caches in Amghala, an oasis located in the disputed Western Sahara. "Moroccan security services have succeeded in dismantling a terrorist cell of 27 members, among whom is a member of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb who was tasked by this organization to set up a rear base in Morocco where it would plan terrorist acts," it said. The ministry did not say when or where they were jugged. "Members of the cell, supervised by a Moroccan citizen who is in the Al-Qaeda camps in northern Mali, have been planning terrorist acts using boom belts and car booms that mainly target security services and to rob banks to fund their terrorist projects," it added. The cell members also planned to send recruits "to AQIM camps in Algeria and Mali to undergo paramilitary training before returning to Morocco to execute their destructive plans using the weapons discovered near Amghala", it added. Moroccan Interior Minister Taib Cherkaoui in remarks carried by the official MAP news agency said members of the cell also targeted foreign interests and had links with "extremist elements" based in Europe. The seized weapons included 30 Kalashnikov assault rifles, two rocket-propelled grenades and ammunition, he said. Violence linked to militancy is rare in Morocco, a staunch Western ally with a reputation for stability that has helped to entice millions of tourists to visit the country. The last big attack was a series of suicide kabooms in the economic capital, Casablanca, in 2003 that killed 45 people. Since then security services say they have rounded up more than 60 radical cells. AQIM joined Osama Bin Laden's terrorist network in 2006. It operates mainly in Algeria, where it wages frequent ambushes and bombings, but has crossed the porous desert borders of the region to spread violence in the rest of northwestern Africa. Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger have opened a joint military headquarters in the region in an unusual, united effort to combat terrorism and trafficking across borders. |
| Posted by:Fred |