Moroccan security forces foiled a terrorist plot to attack tourists this summer, in what has become a “near-daily” struggle to root out extremist cells increasingly linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq, a top security official said.
Abdelhak Bassou, head of Morocco’s Renseignements Generaux domestic intelligence agency, said in a rare interview on Friday that four separate terrorist cells have been broken up this year.
He said one of those groups, with 11 militants arrested in May, was preparing attacks “planned for this summer” in a plot aimed at tourist hotels in Morocco, which is a largely moderate Muslim kingdom and strong US ally.
The country has seen a rise in radical Islam in recent years, and the government has jailed hundreds of suspected militants since a string of bombings killed 45 people in 2003.
Bassou said authorities had broken up “about 30 cells” over the past five years and predicted they would dismantle “another three or four” radical cells during the rest of this year. “At this point, it’s become near-daily work,” he said.
The investigations have revealed extremist networks that extended from Europe to the al-Qaeda terror operation in Iraq, he said. Most of the Moroccan cells support al-Qaeda in Iraq via militant bases in neighboring Algeria, channeling cash, weapons and combatants, he said.
Three of the four alleged cells currently being prosecuted were focused on supporting insurgents in Iraq and had smuggled “some 30 to 50 [Moroccan] fighters” into that country, Bassou said.
“We have to continue to anticipate,” he said, adding that the threat also comes from “loose elements” of one or two individuals who plan small attacks on their own.
Some 1,100 alleged Islamic radicals are now behind bars, either convicted of terrorism charges or awaiting trial.
Bassou said a “huge improvement” in cooperation between Arab and Western intelligence services has helped limit terrorist attacks since the 9/11 assault on the US, but he said another factor is that many al-Qaeda loyalists are focused on the war in Iraq.
“It doesn’t mean they wouldn’t blow up a bus of tourists here if they have the opportunity,” he said.
But the fact that al-Qaeda is relying on many support cells in North Africa for fighters, money and guns is a sign that it is losing ground in Iraq, Bassou said.
“If they don’t show results, I don’t give them five more years of existence,” he said, contending that al-Qaeda needs victories in Iraq to attract new recruits in the Arab world.
Still, Bassou warned, the focus of Islamic extremists could easily shift closer to home, in Europe and North Africa, if al-Qaeda in Iraq collapsed.
“It would become more dangerous, we’d have less visibility,” he said.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the