After Paris Attacks Morocco Launches New Counterterrorism Plan

Rabat – The Moroccan government will implement a new counterterrorism plan to protect the country from any terrorism threat. The new plan will take effect immediately until the end of 2015.

The Moroccan Ministry of the Interior in cooperation with the General Directorate for National Security (DGSN) and the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST) have designed “the details of a high-level security plan to confront terrorism in Morocco” according to Moroccan daily Al-Massae, in its Tuesday issue.

The new strategy has been developed as a result of the ISIS terrorist attacks that hit Paris last Friday, claiming the lives of nearly 130 people and leaving 350 others injured.

“The terms of the anti-terrorism plan were put into execution and the instructions to the relevant departments will be applied across the whole country,” the same source revealed.

“Special units consisting of police officers have set up crisis cells at police headquarters of major cities, ready to receive alerts and coordinate with the General Directorate of National Security in case of a terrorist threat,” the daily added.

The new counterterrorism plan will increase surveillance at all Moroccan borderlines and tighten security to foreign admissions into the territory.

“It is expected that a joint brigade [under the supervision of the Prosecutor General] made up of officers of the DGST, the gendarmerie, kingpins and pashas be set up to coordinate actions to counter any terrorist threat,” the daily concluded.

The high-security plan is set to stay in effect until the end of the year and to secure the New Year festivities throughout Morocco.

Morocco has been immune from terrorist attacks since April 2011 when an explosion at a café in Marrakech killed 17 people, most of them tourists.

Conversely, the Maghreb region has seen a surge in terrorist acts between 2011 and 2014, as reported by Spain’s Instituto Elcano.