Moroccan Authorities Claim to have Dismantled a 15-man Terrorist Network

Moroccan authorities Friday said they have dismantled a 15-man terrorist network which has links with foreigners allied to Al Qaeda. Called “Fath Al Andalusian” (conquest of Andalusia), the group was in several Moroccan cities and planned terrorist acts in the Kingdom, said police sources quoted by the official media.

The detainees were in possession of “electronic devices and chemicals” used to manufacture explosives, the same sources added.

It is the first announced haul since 2 July, when security forces arrested 35 people who were recruiting “volunteers” for Iraq and Algeria on behalf of Al Qaeda, and intended terrorist acts in Morocco.

Some 35 other people under a Belgian-Moroccan named Blliraj were arrested in February. Five Islamic party leaders are among the detainees whose trial starts in September.

Since the 16 May 2003 terrorist attack on Casablanca in which 45 people died including 12 suicide bombers, the Moroccan authorities foiled fifty terrorist projects.

One thousand Islamists have been arrested since. Since beginning 2008, one hundred sentences have been delivered between one year imprisonment and life in jail. Some detainees have also been discharged

Source African Press Agency

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