He said that weapons, ammunition, teasers, swords and bomb materials seized from the hideouts were displayed for the journalists to see.
Moroccan authorities said on
Monday they had dismantled a militant cell planning to create affiliate
of Islamic State in the country.
Abdelhak Khayyam,
Head of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ), made the
announcement during a press conference in Sale (Morocco).
He
said that security forces seized weapons and bomb-making materials when
their hideout was raided, adding that the cell was the latest in a
series of radical groups security agents had uncovered.
He
said that five members of the group had pledged allegiance to the
Islamic State group and planned to create a local offshoot, called the
Caliphate Soldiers in Morocco.
Khayyam said the group, operating in the southern city of Essaouira and the central town of Sidi Allal Al-Bahraoui, got its name from the Algerian group of the Caliphate Soldiers.
He
said that weapons, ammunition, teasers, swords and bomb materials
seized from the hideouts were displayed for the journalists to see.
"The weapons came to Morocco through the eastern borders with Algeria,’’ Khayyam said.
He
said that hundreds of fighters from Morocco and other Maghreb states
like Tunisia and Algeria had joined Islamist militant forces in Syria's
war.
"Some are threatening to return and create a new jihadi wings in their home countries.
"Five members of the latest cell were planning to leave for Syria and Iraq after perpetrating an attack,’’ he said.
Morocco, Western ally against Islamist militancy, often announces it had broken up radical cells accused of plotting attacks.
The country had suffered several bomb attacks by Islamist militants, most recently in 2011 in Marrakesh.
