Morocco under the assault of Islamists

By Olivier Guitta

In fact not a week goes by without a story of arrests of alleged terrorists, radical imams and cells preparing youngsters for the Jihad in Iraq.

Back at the end of November, authorities dismantled a cell in the same Casablanca slum where the fourteen bombers of the May 2003 originated. This cell composed of 13 men was headed by Abu Zubair Al Maghribi who had been watched by police for a few months because of his contacts with the Algerian terror group GSPC.He had recruited very rapidly 12 men, martyr candidates for the Jihad in Morocco and Iraq. In fact, they had planned to build a training camp in the Atlas mountains and had picked targets they could attack in Morocco. Including the British and US embassies and consulates alike.

On December 1, Morocco fired 31 imams for their radical sermons.

Also authorities have been focusing on the city of Tetuan and especially its Mezwak mosque where over a dozen young men were recruited to commit suicide attacks against coalition forces in Iraq. Interestingly, most of the alleged perpetrators of the Madrid March 11 2004 attacks were also attending this mosque. A Moroccan goes as far as calling the Mezwak mosque "a factory of suicide bombers", the Saudi owned daily Asharq Al Awsat calls it " the highway for suicide bombers to Iraq".

Considering these facts, it is not surprising that CIA agents have come to Morocco to investigate the extent of the recruiting for Iraq's suicide missions. Indeed the number of Moroccans fighting in Iraq has skyrocketed in the past few years. According to the Spanish El Pais, over 500 suicide attacks have occurred in Iraq since the start of the war, 90% of them have been perpetrated by foreigners and a majority of them have been Moroccans.

But not only Americans are showing up in Tetuan, Spaniards are also swarming around the mosque to get their share of info related to the Madrid bombings and the potential recruitment of likely terrorists.

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