Morocco has once again been implicated in terror attacks, with the inquiry into the Madrid bombings indicating that six Moroccans plotted the series of explosions on rush-hour trains that killed 201 and left 1,500 injured.
But with accusing stares levelled at it, the north African country insists it has never let up in its battle against home-grown extremist groups, and has even ratcheted up the fight against radical Islam since the start of the year.
Moroccan extremists have been implicated in several other major attacks in recent years, including the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington and the attacks on Morocco's cosmopolitan economic hub Casablanca in May last year.
Forty-five people died in that attack, including 12 suicide bombers - mostly from the ramshackle slums that dot Casablanca's outskirts, said to be ideal breeding grounds for all forms of radicalism.
A vast inquiry launched by the police and legal authorities immediately following the Casablanca attacks had, four months later, led to the arrests of more than 900 people.
The Moroccan parliament fast-tracked anti-terror legislation following the attacks, overwhelmingly adopting a controversial law less than two weeks later, which stiffened penalties and eased police work in terrorism cases.
The law broadened the definition of terrorism and made it easier for courts to hear cases classified as terrorist.
Since it was enacted, 16 people have been sentenced to death for their key roles in the Casablanca attacks, and several more have been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, often for "helping to prepare terrorist acts" and belonging to the banned Salafia Jihadia Muslim extremist group.
Salafia has been roundly blamed by the authorities in Morocco for the Casablanca attacks.
Although the arm of the law has been very long in rounding up suspects and pronouncing guilty verdicts in connection with the Casablanca attacks, officials here say their investigation into the series of suicide bombings are far from over.
One police source said that some 200 people have been detained since the start of the year in connection with alleged extremist activities on Moroccan soil.
Ninety of the suspects were from Tangiers, hometown of Jamal Zougam, one of three Moroccans arrested in Spain following the Madrid bombings.
An official in Rabat said Morocco, which has sent agents to Spain to help in the probe, had warned Madrid in June 2003 that Zougam was in Spain and belonged to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.
Zougam left Morocco three weeks after the Casablanca suicide attacks, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Spain, meanwhile, has dispatched its own investigators to Morocco to pore over the results of the probes into the Casablanca attacks, a source here said.
The authorities in Morocco, which prides itself on its moderate form of Islam, have also stepped up their fight against radical Muslim preachers who allegedly promote extremist doctrines in their sermons.
In February, the ministry in charge of Islamic affairs was reorganised, revamping, among others, the directorate of the north African country's mosques.
"The main mission of the directorate of the mosques will be to ensure efficient control of sermons," said Islamic scholar Mohamed Darif.
Twenty percent of working age Moroccans are unemployed, and the country has great disparities in wealth and widespread illiteracy.
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