Morocco says it arrests four Daesh-linked terrorists

RABAT — Morocco on Monday arrested four suspects allegedly linked to the Daesh group who were plotting "dangerous and imminent terrorist" attacks, the judicial police said.

The four Moroccan men, all in their 20s, were detained in the northern city of Tangiers during a raid in which police fired warning shots, the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) said in a statement.

They were planning to "destabilise security in the kingdom... through terrorist methods inspired by operations" carried out by Daesh in Syria and Iraq, the statement added.

Bladed weapons and electronic equipment were also seized, it said.

In September, authorities said they had dismantled an Daesh-linked cell and arrested five men accused of preparing suicide attacks against prominent figures and a security headquarters in Morocco.

At the time, BCIJ head Abdelhak Khiame told AFP in an interview that Daesh has "developed" in the Sahel-Sahara region due to conflict in Libya and in countries like Mali, which he said were unable to "control their security" situations.

 "Terrorist cells and terrorism are growing in the region, but also organised crime networks, drug trafficking, [and of] weapons and human beings," he said.

"All of this... makes the Sahel region, in my opinion, a time bomb."

The Sahel covers western and north-central Africa.