Morocco Busts 3-member Terrorist Cell Including Polisario Member

Moroccan authorities arrested three individuals loyal to IS, including a Polisario member, who were plotting attacks in the Kingdom.

Morocco’s counterterrorism agency, the Central Bureau for Judicial Investigations (BCIJ), arrested the three IS members, aged between 24 and 30, in Laayoune, Salé and Marrakech, the Interior ministry said in a statement.

The arrested individuals are pursued on charges of belonging to IS, inciting murder and seeking information on bomb making.

The Polisario member rallied Tindouf camps wherefrom he came back with plots to undertake terrorist attacks inside Morocco.

The Separatist member was arrested in possession of electronic gadgets and ID cards delivered by the Polisario as well as military outfit and a separatist flag, said the statement.

Around 100 members of the Separatist Movement have joined ranks of the Islamic State group (IS) in Libya and in the Sahara desert, head of the BCIJ Abdelhak Khiame, told the media last April.

In october 2016, Moroccan authorities busted a supposedly Al Qaeda-linked terrorist cell, the “Saharawi Jihad Front,” headed by a Polisario supporter.

Since 2010, the link between the Polisario and terrorist organizations in the Sahel has been making the headlines. In August 2010, in response to AQIM’s demands, Mauritania released Omar le Sahraoui, a Polisario veteran on hire for AQIM who kidnapped three foreign aid workers in November 2009.

In January 2011, Algerian security services arrested Sidi Mohamed Mahjoub, a Polisario Imam, whose home allegedly contained arms, 20 kilos of explosives, and correspondence with AQIM leader Abdelmalek Droukdel.