The Moroccan security services say the arrested a dozen operatives of an unknown “terrorist group” it named the “Lions of the Caliphate in the Maghreb Al-Aqsa,” following a yearlong probe. Both the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) and the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST) were involved in tracking the 12 suspects across several Moroccan cities, including Casablanca and Rabat. Morocco says the plan to launch terror attacks on Morocco was allegedly orchestrated by a senior Daesh leader in the Sahel region, identified as Abderrahmane Assahraoui, a Libyan national.
Morocco says the group had a weapons cache reportedly located in the Errachidia province, which was raided, allegedly discovering and seizing “a large cache of weapons and ammunition hidden in an isolated, rocky terrain with difficult access.” Among the reported items seized were two Kalashnikov assault rifles with two magazines, two hunting rifles, ten handguns and cartridges and ammunition.
The authorities said they determined that these weapons and materials “were supplied and shipped by a senior Daesh official operating in the Sahel,” indicating that “this terrorist cell was part of a strategic effort by Daesh’s Sahel Province to establish a branch in Morocco.”
The BCIJ said the suspects are between 18 and 40 year of age, with diverse educational backgrounds. Most were employed in low-income temporary jobs, with only two of the detainees married with children. In a press conference, the BCIJ bosses said over the years, Morocco “dismantled more than 40 terrorist cells linked to groups operating in the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa. Some of these networks specialized in sending Moroccan fighters abroad for paramilitary training before planning attacks on Moroccan soil.” They also noted that Moroccan nationals are also participating in terror activity in the Sahel, naming “Noureddine El Youbi, Ali Maychou, and Mohamed Lemkhentar,” as individuals who “coordinate between foreign and local extremists.”
