Morocco dismantles Islamic State-linked cell, arrests three

Moroccan authorities dismantle a cell of Islamic State group-affiliated militants and arrest three suspects accused of plotting an assassination, say security services.

The suspects, detained in the southern city of Errachidia, had planned “crimes of a terrorist nature against individuals” and selected a public servant for “imminent assassination,” according to the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ), which oversees counter-terrorism operations.

Security forces searched the suspects’ homes and a shop, where they found military clothing, jihadist literature and information, says BCIJ.

The head of the cell was “active in recruiting from the among followers of traditional religious trends,” says the statement carried by the MAP state news agency. “He used his shop as a place of worship after he was banned from praying at the mosque, and as a safe place to instill extremist thought among his followers,” it says.