Rabat - Morocco moved to tighten control over its land and air borders to ward off terrorist threats, according to Spanish news agency EFE.
Rabat – Morocco moved to tighten control over its land and air borders to ward off terrorist threats, according to Spanish news agency EFE.
The measures comes following the series of terrorist attacks that targeted Beirut, Paris and Bamako in the past two weeks.
The country’s security forces received instructions to strengthen surveillance in all the country’s airports and other border crossings, and to strengthen control of people and goods, according to the same source.
In recent years, Morocco has emerged as regional leader in the fight against terrorism. Since 2011, the North African country has been the only country in North Africa immune to terrorist attacks.
Morocco’s intelligence services played a decisive role in helping French security forces locate Abdelhamid Abaaoud, alleged mastermind of the Paris terrorist attacks.
This contribution in averting another carnage in the French capital, earned Morocco international praise.
News outlets all over the world have highlighted in recent days the role played by Moroccan intelligence services in locating and killing the mastermind of the attacks.
“That crucial piece of intelligence, supplied by Morocco, allowed French counterterrorism investigators to track Mr. Abaaoud to an apartment building in a Paris suburb, where Mr. Abaaoud, Ms. Aït Boulahcen and a third person, still unidentified, were killed Wednesday in a two-hour battle with police”, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday.
Last Friday, French President Francois Hollande, thanked Morocco for “its effective assistance” following the Paris attacks.
On Monday, Belgium’s King held a phone call with King Mohammed VI and requested a “close and extensive cooperation with Morocco in intelligence and security following the Paris attacks,” according to a statement released by the Ministry of Interior.
