Moroccan authorities say a “terrorist cell” they dismantled on Monday had brought in arms through the Spanish enclave of Melilla to carry out attacks for ISIL.
The cell was made up of 13 members aged between 19 and 37, most of them without primary school education.
Abdelhak Khiame, head of Morocco’s newly-formed judicial investigations agency told reporters that 440 rounds of ammunition, six pistols, 31 handcuffs and electronic gear were seized at a cache near Agadir in southern Morocco.
He said authorities had been watching the suspects for over five months but it was not yet clear if they were linked to cells in Europe
Spanish and Moroccan police have worked together several times to dismantle networks based out of these cities and the surrounding Moroccan countryside aimed and sending recruits to fight in Syria.
Morocco has largely been spared the attacks by extremists against civilian targets elsewhere in the region, such as last week’s attack on a Tunisian museum that killed 21. But it has reported dismantling several cells inspired by radical groups.
Like in Tunisia, many young, disaffected Moroccans have sought to travel abroad to join the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.
So far 246 Moroccan fighters have died in Syria and another 40 in Iraq, he added.
