Thirty-five alleged recruiters for Al-Qaeda operations in Algeria and Iraq were arrested by police in Morocco, where they are also accused of planning attacks, the Moroccan news agency said Wednesday. "This network recruited and sent around 30 candidates for suicide operations in Iraq and three volunteers to fight alongside members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb," a police source told Map. "The suspects were also planning acts of terror in Morocco," the source said.This is the third such group Morocco has claimed to have broken up since the beginning of the year. The specific dates of the arrests, which took place throughout the kingdom, were not given.
Moroccan police in February announced the arrest of 36 people alleged to have been part of an Islamist terror network led by Belgian-Moroccan Abdelkader Belliraj. In May, police in Morocco claimed to have dismantled an alleged terrorist network planning attacks in Morocco and Belgium. Two of the suspects have since been acquitted.
The Algerian-based group previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) vowed allegiance to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda last year. Though most of its attacks are still launched in Algeria, it has also carried out operations in other North African countries.