First Independent Mena Newspaper
A five-member terrorist cell loyal to IS was dismantled Tuesday in a joint operation by Morocco’s FBI, the Central Bureau for Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) and Spanish security services. Following the successful joint counterterrorism operation, Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido highlighted the efficiency of Moroccan-Spanish security cooperation. This operation shows the great efficiency of cooperation […]
Morocco is unrelenting on its crackdown on the returning foreign fighters who joined the ranks of the Islamic state, Abdelhak Khiam, head of Morocco’s counter-terrorism agency (BCIJ), said. “We have arrested and brought to justice more than 200 returnees,” Khiam said in an interview with AFP. He said the suspects were serving sentences ranging from […]
Weak states, porous borders and trafficking activities turned the Sahel into a safe heaven for terrorist groups. The terrorist attack on April 14 in Timbuktu by an Al Qaeda offshoot, the Group for the Defense of Islam and the Muslims, came to represent the capacity of the terrorist group to generate and carry out bloody […]
Maghreb countries continue to make independent counterterrorism (CT) efforts, without much development of multilateral regional initiatives, says Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). In its Counterterrorism Yearbook 2018, ASPI deplores lack of coordination between Maghreb countries in the fight against the terrorism threat. Morocco has many times urged Algerian authorities to coordinate CT actions against jihadists […]
Head of Morocco’s counter-terrorism agency (BCIJ) Abdelhak Khiame wondered why France did not flag up Radouane Lakdim before he moved into action, wreaking havoc on March 23 and taking lives in a supermarket in Trèbes and Carcassonne in southern France. The chief of Morocco’s FBI deplored the lack of communication by French intelligence authorities on […]
Sahel countries have convened a security meeting on March 16 to which Algeria was unsurprisingly not invited. Analysts see that in sidelining Algeria, Sahel countries are expressing exasperation with Algeria’s ambivalence to fight terrorism in the region. Some go as far as saying that Algeria is responsible for the surge of terrorism in the region […]
Terrorist groups are the biggest beneficiary of the unwillingness of Algerian authorities to engage in sincere cooperation with Morocco, said Abdelhak Khiame head of Morocco’s counter-terrorism agency (BCIJ). Speaking to weekly magazine “Jeune Afrique”, Khiame reiterated the call on Algeria to engage in collective efforts to combat terrorism, noting that the absence of regional cooperation […]
Morocco is looking carefully to the situation in the Sahel where terrorists are increasingly resorting to organized crime and trafficking to fund their activities, head of Morocco’s counterterrorism agency, BCIJ, Abdelhak Khiame said. Speaking to local press, Khiame rang the alarm bell regarding the fallout of the connivance between terrorists and organized crime groups on […]
Moroccan authorities announced Wednesday the arrest of six jihadists linked to the ISIS terror group. The busted cell members, aged between 22 and 42, were operating in the city of Tangier, situated in the North of the Kingdom. The arrest was made by the special units of the central bureau of judicial investigation (BCIJ), dubbed […]
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 […]