Weapons and ammunition seized following the dismantling of a terrorist cell are displayed at the BCIJ headquarters
Abdelhak Khiame, head of Morocco's anti-terror agency
Khiame warns Morocco still under terror threat despite IS leader death
Head of Morocco’s anti-terror agency says security forces foiled unprecedented terror attack that would have targeted sensitive economic interests in Moroccan waters.
Monday 28/10/2019
Abdelhak Khiame, head of Morocco's anti-terror agency
SALE - The head of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations Abdelhak Khiame warned Monday that the terror threat remained high in Morocco despite the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Baghdadi died "whimpering and crying" in a raid by US special forces in the Idlib region of northwest Syria.
In a televised address from the White House, Trump said the IS leader died alongside three of his children when he detonated an explosives-laden vest after fleeing into a dead-end tunnel during the attack.
“The ideology of jihad still exists despite Baghdadi’s death,” warned Khiame in a press conference at the BCIJ headquarters in Sale.
“Terrorism does not lie in the IS leader. It’s an ideology.” He said, stressing the difficulty of tracing it on the internet.
Many dismantled terrorist cells in Morocco have sworn allegiance to Baghdadi.
Last week, security forces broke up a “dangerous” terrorist cell with links to the IS group that was planning to carry out “unprecedented” attacks on sensitive economic interests in the North African country and hide in mountainous areas.
The latest anti-terror operation is part of ongoing efforts by Moroccan security services to address all threats likely to undermine the country’s security and stability.
“The cell reached an advanced level to carry out attacks following the weapons and other materials seized during the raids on their hideouts,” said Khiame.
Two rifles and three automatic pistols along with suspicious chemicals that could be used to make explosives and diving equipment were seized during the operation.
The head of the FBI-like anti-terror agency said that the seven suspected terrorists, who come from Casablanca, were planning to carry out attacks on important economic interests in the Moroccan waters besides other targets in the financial capital, which would have been a first in the North African country.
Three of the suspects, whose ages vary from 17 to 25 years, are seasonal lifeguards with expertise in diving.
“The particularity of this terrorist cell is that it was planning to hit targets in the waters,” said Khiame.
The cell’s leader gave his allegiance to Baghdadi. He wanted to join IS in the Sahel region but failed in the southern city Dakhla.
He then got in touch with IS in order to establish an IS state in Morocco. He received the weapons and money from a Syrian man in the country whom the authorities are still looking for, according to Khiame.
“The operation was dealt with professionally under the supervision of the head of DGSN-DGST Abdellatif Hammouchi,” said Khiame.
Some 1,659 Moroccans joined IS ranks in Syria and Iraq. 749 died while 260 have been brought to justice, according to the latest figures read out by a BCIJ official.
Khiame said that Morocco was well prepared for Moroccan jihadists’ return from the Middle East.
There are currently 280 Moroccan women and 391 children in Syria and Iraq.
“Morocco is making efforts to reintegrate Moroccan women who have accompanied their husbands to Syria and Iraq once they are back,” said Khiame.
Until last year, Morocco had been spared jihadist attacks since 2011, when a bomb attack on a cafe in Marrakesh's famed Jamaa El Fna Square killed 17 people, most of them European tourists.
Two young Scandinavian women were beheaded while on a hiking trip in Morocco's High Atlas mountains last December.
Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and her hiking companion 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland, nature lovers who were training to be guides, were on a Christmas holiday hiking trip when they were killed.
Attacks in the North African country's financial capital Casablanca killed 33 people in 2003.
Those attacks - carried out by 12 suicide operatives who came from one of Casablanca's main shanty towns - greatly affected public opinion.
Morocco has since improved its security and legal framework, alongside boosting supervision of religious affairs and anti-terror cooperation with other states.
