Morocco terrorist net dismantled

2010-03-02 18:05

Morocco - Moroccan police have dismantled a terrorist network that was "active in several towns" of the north African kingdom, the state security service announced on Tuesday.

The network included six members who "were planning to commit terrorist acts inside the national territory," the security service said in a statement, without saying when the arrests took place.

"Within the framework of efforts by security forces to combat terrorism and extremism, these services dismantled a terrorist network of six people imbued with Takfirist ideology...," the statement said.

Takfiris are a tiny minority of Muslims in Morocco, but they believe that society and its leaders have turned away from the narrow path of what they see as true Islam.

The arrests were "recently" made in the towns of Taza and Oujda in northeast Morocco and in Kenitra, 40km north of Rabat, according to a security official contacted by AFP.

The "network is also accused of wanting to commit acts of violence against political figures, as well as holding up a bank", said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.

Takfiris condone violence to religious and political ends and first emerged as an ideological force in Egypt in the 1970s.

"The members of this network will be produced in court after an investigation supervised by the public prosecutor," the state security service said.

- SAPA