Posted on 05/06/2007 7:19:49 PM PDT by Valin
RABAT (Reuters) - Moroccan security forces broke up a network helping to recruit fighters for al Qaeda's North African branch and arrested around 20 people overnight in several towns across the country, a government official said on Sunday.
The gang was involved in sending volunteers to training camps run by the Algerian-based al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the official said, confirming an earlier report by state news agency MAP.
"The operation ... allowed the arrest of around 20 people in several towns across the kingdom," MAP said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to give more details.
Morocco, a staunch U.S. ally, says it has broken up more than 50 militant Islamist cells, some linked to al Qaeda, and arrested more than 3,000 people since suicide bombings in the country's economic capital Casablanca in 2003.
Four years of calm were broken this year when six Islamists blew themselves up in the course of a month in Casablanca, killing one other person. On April 11, triple suicide bombings in the capital of neighbouring Algeria killed 33 people.
The attacks have deepened fears of a broad upsurge in violence across the region after the GSPC changed its name with the goal of fusing similar Islamist groups in the region and using it as a base for attacks on European targets.
Morocco's government has pledged a war without respite on violent Islamist groups after the latest attacks.
Local human rights groups say the authorities abuse the rights of many people arrested under anti-terrorism laws, submitting them to unfair trials and ill-treatment. The government denies any such abuse.
ping a ling
King Mohammed VI bump!
Morocco has a branch of the ACLU?
The dems could learn something from Morocco.
First nation to recognize the USA bump!
Really? Learn something new everyday.
In 1787, Morocco became the first nation to recognize the newly independent United States of America. A letter was addressed By the Sultan Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah to George Washington to tell him that he had instructed his naval vessels to respect and protect the ships of the American colonies. After the American Revolution, the United States concluded a Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Morocco, still in effect today, which makes it the longest standing unbroken treaty that the United States has had with any nation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.