Moroccan counterterrorism police reported Thursday that they had thwarted a plan to “attack security sites” and arrested four individuals suspected of having ties to the Sahelian branch of the Islamic State extremist organisation.
In a Sale press conference, Habboub Cherkaoui, the director of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations, declared that a “dangerous terrorist plot” had been thwarted by the operation.
According to a previous police statement, the four suspects—all Moroccan, including three brothers—were arrested on Sunday in Had Soualem, close to Casablanca.
Cherkaoui claimed that the organisation had taped a statement in advance asserting responsibility for the planned explosives assault.
They targeted “key security facilities, a supermarket, and public areas” that were frequented by Moroccans and foreigners, he noted, according to investigations later conducted.
According to preliminary investigations, Moroccan authorities think the suspects had direct contact with a Sahelian Islamic State group leader who utilised digital communication tools to recruit and indoctrinate them.
The suspects had “modest jobs” and were between the ages of 26 and 35, he said.
The “real threat to the kingdom” presented by extremist organisations in Africa, according to Cherkaoui.
According to him, since late 2022, 130 Moroccan citizens have visited extremist battlegrounds in Somalia and the Sahel.
The official went on to say that many of them were “looking to expand their groups’ activities into the kingdom.”
Moroccan security authorities frequently report making arrests and stopping attack plans, even though the nation has mostly avoided Islamist violence in recent years.
