Moroccan Security Forces Thwart Major Terror Plot in Safi Region

The revelations of the newspaper Assabah are chilling. According to security sources cited by the newspaper, the members of this cell had the intention of carrying out large-scale attacks, first in the Safi region before targeting other places and personalities in other Moroccan cities. Specifically, the five terrorists had planned to attack the gendarmerie and police services in the city of Safi to get their hands on the weapons and uniforms of the agents.

The weapons thus stolen would then, according to a precise and well-developed plan, be used to attack other regions of the kingdom, targeting the places that attract the most tourists and walkers. It is a question of a tourist complex in the Sidi Bouzid region, a hotel in the city, a nightclub and a bar. These attacks were to be carried out first with swords and bladed weapons, specifies the same source.

Aware of the terror they could create, the members of this cell, especially their leader, planned to attack foreign tourists to sow panic among the citizens. They had even congratulated themselves on the terrorist attack that targeted the two Scandinavian tourists in the Imlil region in December, while criticizing the method used.

In addition to carrying out terrorist attacks in Morocco, these individuals intended to join the ranks of Daesh in the Syro-Iraqi zone, reveal security sources to the newspaper. Their leader, one "Abou Laïth", was in the habit of watching massacre videos in Syria and Iraq and sharing them with his accomplices to encourage them to commit the same misdeeds in Morocco. A theology student, he had gone to Mauritania to "perfect" his religious knowledge, while discreetly trying to make contact with terrorist cells there and thus obtain their approval to lead the Safi gang.

The Emir had planned everything to indoctrinate his accomplices and did not hesitate to organize initiatory trips, as was the case during the summer of 2018 when the entire group headed to the city of Sidi Bouzid for a spiritual trip which consisted largely of discussing Daesh and its methods. Meanwhile, Abou Laith does not abandon Syria and Iraq and contacts are made there allowing members of this group to go to Turkey with forged documents. The passage to Syria being very difficult, they return to Morocco before falling into the nets of the Moroccan security services.