afrol News, 1 September - Officials in Morocco claim to have dismantled a terrorist network linked to Al-Qaeda, following arrest of 15 people on Friday.

The 15 members arrested by Moroccan police have been described as highly dangerous, with state sources saying they were found in possession of chemicals and electronics used in making of explosives.

"Members of this structure were planning attacks in Morocco and had established operational links with foreign extremists of Osama bin Ladin's l-Qaeda organisation," said police.

Police did not mention where suspects were arrested but said network was present in several Moroccan cities.

The identities of the suspects who are yet to appear before court have been withheld.

This is the fourth group this year to have landed in Moroccan police hands. However, Morocco has been accused of over dramatising the threat it faces from extremists to benefit from US and Europe support.

In July, Moroccan police arrested 35 alleged recruiters for al-Qaeda operations in Algeria and Iraq, also accusing them of planning attack in the country.

The alleged terrorism network, was said to have recruited and ferried 30 candidates for suicide operations in Iraq and also sent three volunteers to fight alongside members of the al Qaeda Branch in the Islamic Maghreb, police had said.

Officials had also said then that government had broken 55 terrorist cells since 2003, when suicide bombings killed 45 people in Casablanca, the country's largest city, saying the number of Islamists in Moroccan jails had risen to nearly 1,000.

Moroccan police in February announced arrest of 36 people alleged to have been part of an Islamist network led by Belgian-Moroccan Abdelkader Belliraj and again in May they dismantled a network planning attacks in Belgium and Morocco.

However two of the suspects have since been acquitted and last month a Moroccan court also sentenced 29 people to prison terms of up to eight years for recruiting volunteers to fight in Iraq and ideological links to Al Qaeda and the Moroccan Islamic Fighting Group.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), vowed allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda last year.

Although most of its attacks are still launched in Algeria, it has also carried out operations in other North African countries.

Ever since it changed its name, the group has spread its activities, mainly targeting state and foreign interests in Algeria, but also recruiting fighters and also conducting attacks in various states.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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