MOROCCAN security forces have dismantled a radical Islamist cell recruiting volunteers to fight in Iraq and arrested 62 people, the Government said on Thursday. "The first elements of the inquiry reveal the existence of ideological links with and financial and logistical support for international terrorist groups," it said in a statement. Those groups included Al Qaeda, the Algeria-based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) and other international terrorist organisations, it added. All those arrested were Moroccan. Morocco, a staunch US ally, says it has broken up more than 50 militant Islamist cells, some linked to Al Qaeda, and arrested more than 3000 people since suicide bombings in the country's financial capital, Casablanca, in 2003. In August, the Government said it had broken up a cell planning to declare a holy war in northeast Morocco, attack tourist sites and assassinate people who symbolise the state. It said the capture proved the existence of an increasingly sophisticated menace to the stability of the country of 32 million people before parliamentary elections expected this year.
The latest group's links with the GSPC could also alarm anti-terrorism officials already concerned that the GSPC is drawing in growing numbers of radical Islamists in the region and providing them with weapons and military training. Some analysts say the GSPC has been weakened by an Algerian Government crackdown on the movement since more than a decade of civil conflict in the country ended. They also question the threat posed by foreign Islamist fighters in Iraq, saying the country's descent into chaos is now blamed mostly on the work of local sectarian militias. "You used to hear the Americans say this is all the work of foreigners but now, in terms of the pure terrorist attacks where the goal is to kill civilians, ... most of this is Iraqi led," said Kevin Rosser, a terrorism expert at risk consultancy Control Risks Group.
But Mohamed Tozy, political science professor at Hassan II University in Casablanca, said the idea of fighting the US-led occupation of Iraq still seemed to appeal to young Moroccans, even those who are not fervently religious. "It seems the idea of going to fight in Iraq is no longer so closely tied to Islamism and Jihadism," he said. "Simply being young might now be enough to predispose some people to follow this path."
The Government statement said those arrested in the latest round-up would be brought before judicial authorities in line with Morocco's anti-terrorist laws. Rights groups say hundreds of the people arrested since 2003 have faced ill-treatment or unfair trials, something the Government denies.