Moroccan authorities say they have dismantled a suspected terrorist cell linked to the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), arresting 10 suspects and preventing what investigators described as an advanced attack plot. The country’s counterterrorism agency reported that coordinated raids across multiple cities uncovered bladed weapons, military-style clothing, bomb-making materials, chemicals, digital devices, and a vehicle believed to have been altered for a bombing or ramming assault. Investigators also found a warehouse stocked with butane cylinders and nail-packed, wired pressure cookers. The arrests come as ISIL and al-Qaeda affiliates expand across the Sahel and West Africa, seizing territory in Mali and striking across borders in Mauritania, Burkina Faso, and Niger. Though Morocco has largely avoided regional violence, officials say roughly 130 of its citizens have joined the ISIL affiliate in recent years.
Al Jazeera