Morocco: Arrest of "extremists" suspected of being linked to a pro-ISIS cell in Marrakesh

 Moroccan anti-terror police announced that they had arrested two people suspected of being linked to a "terrorist cell" loyal to the Islamic State near the city of Marrakesh (south), one of whom was involved in training in the manufacture of explosives.

In a statement, the Central Office of Judicial Research said that its members "arrested two 23-year-olds, imbued with extremist ideology, on suspicion of being linked to a terrorist cell affiliated with the terrorist organization ISIS", in the Rahamna area, north of Marrakesh.

 He explained that one of them "engaged in a serious effort to train how to manufacture explosives in a traditional way to carry out terrorist operations," noting that he "praised the crime of premeditated murder and the attempted murder recently committed by a person showing signs of mental disorder in the city of Tiznit and Agadir" (south).

 The Public Prosecution Office had assigned the Anti-Terrorism Police to investigate the suspect in these two crimes “because there is a suspicion of a terrorist motive.” In mid-January, one of them killed a 79-year-old French woman with a bladed weapon, while a Belgian woman survived the attempted murder in the second.

Last week, the 31-year-old suspect was placed in a mental hospital for medical expertise, without the Moroccan authorities yet announcing any update on the investigation, as the French and Belgian judicial authorities announced the opening of investigations into the two crimes against the background of a "terrorist project".

 The central office also indicated that the two people arrested on Wednesday "were declaring "loyalty" to the alleged emir of the so-called "Islamic State" organization, in addition to "they started circulating and circulating extremist literature for the purpose of recruitment and polarization."

 Morocco had been spared terrorist attacks in recent years until late 2018, when two Scandinavian women were beheaded in the southern suburbs of Marrakesh, in an attack launched by ISIS loyalists, without the organization claiming its claim.

 Three people and a fourth partner were sentenced to death in this case.

 The Moroccan authorities announce from time to time the dismantling of terrorist cells loyal to the Islamic State in particular, and their number has exceeded two thousand since 2002, with the arrest of more than 3,500 people, according to official data.