Morocco dismantles IS-linked terror cell

CASABLANCA – Moroccan authorities dismantled Friday a suspected terrorist cell with links to the Islamic State group.

The FBI-like Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) broke up the cell in Casablanca, Ouezzane and Chefchaouen and arrested seven suspects.

The cell’s leader and one of his accomplices were arrested in Tamaris, on the outskirts of Casablanca as two rifles and three automatic pistols along with suspicious chemicals that could be used to make explosives were seized during the operation.

The suspected terrorists planned to carry out, as soon as possible, a series of terrorist operations targeting sensitive infrastructures and strategic sites, in coordination with foreign elements, according to the Interior Ministry.

The latest anti-terror operation is part of the ongoing efforts of Moroccan security services to address all threats likely to undermine the country’s security and stability.

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.

Attacks in the North African state'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.