Rabat – Moroccan intelligence services had allegedly informed their German counterparts about the possibility that the Anis Amiri, the alleged author of the Berlin attack on Monday, could perpetrate a terrorist attack on German soil.
According to a Moroccan official, who spoke to Morocco World News on condition of anonymity, Morocco’s intelligence services, otherwise known as DST, had alerted Germany’s Federal Foreign Service on September 19, 2016 of Anis Amiri’s jihadist tendencies and his alleged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State.
According to the same source, Moroccan intelligence services again reached out to their German counterparts on October 11, 2016 and informed them that Amiri had been illegally residing in Germany for 14 months and was meeting, on a regular basis, with two followers of ISIS described as “dangerous.”
Before entering Germany, Amiri had tried to enter the Syrian war zone as well as Iraq following the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. Amiri, who is of Tunisian origin, was later arrested by Italian authorities and sentenced to four years in prison after he tried to leave for Turkey.
This is not the first time Moroccan authorities have informed their European counterparts of the threats posed by followers of ISIS. On several occasions, Spanish authorities were able to dismantle terrorist networks operating on Spanish soil thanks to the information provided by Morocco’s intelligence services.
Following the November 13 Paris terrorist attacks last year, Morocco’s DST played an instrumental role in helping French security services locate the whereabouts of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of the attacks.
