Morocco Disbands Al-Qaida Cell Sending Fighters To Mali

Moroccan Interior Ministry said on Saturday that it had disbanded a cell linked to the al-Qaida terrorist group which has been sending fighters to Mali and the Sahel region.

The cell was “operating with the indoctrination and recruitment of Moroccan al-Qaida-inspired youths in order to send them out to take part in the so-called Jihad in the African Sahel,” the ministry said in a press release.

The cell was operating in the cities of Nador, Casablanca, Guercif, Laayoune and Kalaat Sraghna, the statement added.

Around 20 people had been sent to fight together with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its ally in West Africa, and others had been sent to Libya, it said.

Northern Mali was seized by rebels in the aftermath of the March 22 military coup, sparking fears of looming threat by AQIM and drug and human traffickers in the Sahel region on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert.

Xinhuanet