Detenido un presunto yihadista del Daesh en Marruecos

Moroccan police have arrested a Daesh-linked terrorist in the Moroccan city of Tangier. According to police sources, the jihadist had tried to kill a person who did not respect "the precepts of Islam", with the help of a drill, causing several wounds to his neck.

According to the Directorate General of National Security (DGSN), once the police patrols arrived, the alleged terrorist, aged 36, unsuccessfully tried to escape after the attempted murder by jumping from the first floor of a building.

After his arrest, the police searched the flat where he was staying. They seized weapons, including the drill used in the attack, and extremist publications, as well as the Daesh flag. They also found in the home "a homemade rifle with black powder, four bladed weapons of different sizes, iron blunt objects and a leather holster for a pistol".

According to the Moroccan news agency MAP, the officers also seized "extremist publications and manuscripts, computer equipment and four electronic download media, three digital memory cards, three cameras, two phone batteries and a mobile phone". These objects have been handed over to forensic laboratories for digital analysis, according to the statement issued by the DGSN.

In accordance with the instructions given by the public prosecutor's office in charge of terrorism and extremism, the investigations have been entrusted to the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ), which reports directly to the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST). The aim is to find possible links that the suspect may have with Daesh, including with other terrorist organisations, as well as the course of his radicalisation.

This latest arrest raises alarm bells about the rise of Daesh supporters both in Morocco and in the region itself. As Morocco's anti-terrorism chief, Habboub Cherkaoui, told EFE, "the Sahel is the focus of most concern for Rabat", which causes "great concern at the regional and international level, and poses a threat not only to African countries but also to Arab and European countries".

He asserts that this region has become "a safe haven" for terrorists and points out that "today, it is the Sahel area that has become a safe and fertile haven for terrorist networks (...) and where Daesh has moved to after its defeat in Syria and Iraq".

It is in Morocco in particular where, in Cherkaoui's words, jihadism "continues to gain adherents", although the Moroccan police "continue to be effective in the framework of their anticipatory strategy", arresting both those who settle in the kingdom and those who plan to mobilise in the Sahel areas. Another example of this was the arrest of a group of four jihadist followers of Daesh, also in Tangier, who were aiming to join the group's affiliate located in the Sahel.