The four suspects, all Moroccans including three brothers, were taken into custody on Sunday in Had Soualem, near Casablanca, according to an earlier police statement [GETTY]
Moroccan counter-terrorism police said Thursday they foiled a plot to “attack security sites” as four people suspected of links to the Islamic State jihadist group in the Sahel were arrested.
Habboub Cherkaoui, head of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations, said in a press conference in Sale that the operation had prevented a “dangerous terrorist plot”.
The four suspects, all Moroccans including three brothers, were taken into custody on Sunday in Had Soualem, near Casablanca, according to an earlier police statement.
Cherkaoui said the group had pre-recorded a statement claiming responsibility for the planned attacks by using explosives.
Investigations later revealed they targeted “key security facilities, a supermarket and public areas” frequented by Moroccans and foreigners, he added.
Moroccan authorities believe the suspects had direct ties to an Islamic State group leader in the Sahel who had recruited and indoctrinated them through digital communication platforms, according to preliminary investigations.
He said the suspects were between 26 and 35 and had worked “modest jobs”.
Cherkaoui said jihadist groups in Africa posed a “real threat to the kingdom”.
He said 130 Moroccan nationals have travelled to jihadist battlefields in Somalia and the Sahel since late 2022.
Many of them were “seeking to expand their groups’ activities into the kingdom”, the official added.
While the country has largely avoided jihadist violence in recent years, Moroccan security forces regularly report arrests and disrupted attack plots.
