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Morocco breaks up IS cell

August 14, 2014

Moroccan police have dismantled a jihadist network suspected of recruiting volunteers to fight with the radical "Islamic State" group in Iraq and Syria. The operation was carried out with help from authorities in Spain.

This undated file image posted on a militant website on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows fighters from the al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) marching in Raqqa, Syria. Moderate Syrian rebels are buckling under the onslaught of the radical al-Qaida breakaway group that has swept over large parts of Iraq and Syria. Some rebels are giving up the fight, crippled by lack of weapons and frustrated with the power of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Other, more hard-line Syrian fighters are bending to the winds and joining the radicals. (AP Photo/Militant Website, File)
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo

The Moroccan Interior Ministry said on Thursday that it had broken up a network that was used to recruit and send volunteers to fight with the "Islamic State" (IS) in Iraq and Syria.

"The operation, based on detailed investigations carried out in close collaboration with Spain, stems from a proactive security approach aimed at battling terrorist threats," a ministry statement said.

According to Moroccan police, the group was operating in the Moroccan cities of Fez and Tetouan, as well as the town of Fnideq, close to the Spanish exclave of Ceuta.

The Spanish Interior Ministry, which was involved in the investigation, said that nine people in total were arrested. It added that the network had also been operating in Ceuta and was sending recruits for train in weapons use bomb assembly and car theft.

"The dismantled network was dedicated to the recruitment, financial support and dispatch of jihadists for the terrorist organization 'Islamic State'," said the Spanish ministry.

This month two young Spanish women were arrested in the Spanish North African enclave of Melilla, suspected of trying to join an IS cell.

Since a series of suicide attacks that killed 33 people in Casablanca in May, 2003, Morocco claims to have dismantled a large number of jihadist cells. Morocco has expressed concerns that its own nationals returning from fighting in Syria have done so "to carry out terrorist acts."

rc/sb (AFP, AP, Reuters)

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