Moroccan authorities said Wednesday they had arrested 12 suspects in a “highly dangerous terror plot” linked to the Islamic State – Sahel Province jihadist group.
In a joint statement, the General Directorate of National Security and the General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance said they had foiled the plot with simultaneous arrests across nine cities, including Tamesna near the capital Rabat.
They alleged that the 12 suspects, all of them Moroccans, had been “directly commissioned and instigated by a senior IS leader in the Sahel”.
The IS contact heads “a so-called external operations committee” overseeing jihadist activities “beyond the Sahara-Sahel region”, the security directorates said.
While Morocco has largely avoided jihadist violence in recent years, the security forces often announce arrests they say have foiled planned attacks.
Last month, authorities said they had foiled a attack near Casablanca by arresting four people suspected of links to IS.
Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations chief Habboub Cherkaoui warned last month that jihadist groups based in sub-Saharan Africa were posing a “real threat to the kingdom”.
Cherkaoui said 130 Moroccans had 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”, he added.
