Morocco Cracks Down on Unregulated Mosques Amid Terrorism Concerns

The latest joint action by the Moroccan and Spanish police led to the arrest of the leader of a terrorist cell on December 5 in a mosque in Melilla, reports the Spanish agency EFE.

Before the arrest of its leader who resides in Guadalajara, Spain, it was the terrorist cell itself that was dismantled on Wednesday in northeastern Morocco, notes Barlamane. The announcement was also made by the Moroccan anti-terrorist police who claimed to have proceeded, thanks to a joint operation carried out with its Spanish counterpart, to the arrest of four members of a jihadist cell with links to the Islamic State (IS) group.

According to Abdelhak Khiame, director of the BCIJ, the suspects "aged 24 to 39 and carried out their activities between Melilla and the neighboring cities". According to sources in the anti-terrorism struggle, this terrorist cell has specialized in recruiting volunteers to fight in the Syria-Iraq region. However, according to Khiame, it had not "managed to send fighters to the region where we do not know how many members they had managed to recruit" before being dismantled.

Regarding the gathering of terrorist cells in mosques, Khiame stressed the "institutionalization of places of worship" in order to put an end to what he called "anarchic mosques". Hailing this "exemplary cooperation between Spain and Morocco", he stressed that it has already made it possible to carry out ten joint and simultaneous operations to dismantle cells.

The same source indicated that no weapons were found with the suspects who are already in the hands of justice for the needs of the ongoing investigation.