Rabat – The Central Judicial Investigation Bureau (BCIJ) recently dismantled a terrorist cell in the Safi area that was planingd to carry out major serial attacks, according to Assabah newspaper.
The group planned to target the Safi area first and then other Moroccan cities. They planned to disguise themselves as police officers.
The cell planned to attack the gendarmerie and police services in Safi city in order to seize the officers’ weapons and uniforms.
They would then use the captured weapons to launch attacks in other Moroccan cities.
Targeting tourist attractions and crowded areas, the terror cell wanted to attack a tourist complex in the Sidi Bouzid area, a hotel in the city, a nightclub, and a bar.
They planned to use swords and knives in the first phase of the attacks.
The group apparently adopted some psychological warfare tactics.
The members of this cell, including their leader, were planning to attack foreign tourists to create panic.
The leader of the group, who goes by the his war-name Abou Laith, would share videos of terror massacres in Syria and Iraq with the rest of the members.
They also set out to join ISIS in the Middle East, according to the newspaper.
They praised the terrorist attack that targeted the two Scandinavian tourists in the Imlil region last December, though they criticized the method that were used in the tragic assault.
Read also: Morocco’s BCIJ Dismantles 5-Member ISIS Cell in North Morocco, Spain
On February 15, BCIJ dismantled a terrorist cell composed of five extremists, aged 21 to 36, one of them a former detainee under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
BCIJ seized electronic devices and knives in the operation.
Morocco maintains its crackdown on terrorist cells recruiting and planning attacks in the country and abroad.
According to the 2018 Global Terrorism Index, Morocco has two strategies to deal with Moroccan fighters returning from conflict zones: Deradicalization programs and imprisonment.
The twofold policy that has allowed law enforcement to apprehend returnees for investigation and put them in custody in 2015.
