Morocco breaks up terrorist cell in Nador, Berkane

security forces dismantle terrorist cell with suspected links to Islamic State group in northeastern Morocco.

RABAT - Moroccan security forces dismantled Thursday a terrorist cell with suspected links to the Islamic State group in northeastern Morocco.

The FBI-like Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) arrested five members of the suspected terrorist cell operating in Berkane and Nador, according to the Interior Ministry.

The suspects planned to join the camps of one of IS branches in the Sahel region, before they decided to engage in the implementation of terrorist operations targeting sensitive sites in the North African Kingdom, said the ministry.

The leader of the terrorist cell was able to acquire qualifications in making explosives with the intent of acquiring materials to prepare explosive devices for their use in his ‘destructive’ projects, it added.

The latest anti-terror operation is part of the ongoing efforts of Moroccan security services to address all threats likely to undermine the country’s security and stability.

Until last year, Morocco had been spared jihadist attacks since 2011, when a bomb attack on a cafe in Marrakesh's famed Jamaa El Fna Square killed 17 people, most of them European tourists.

Attacks in the North African state's financial capital Casablanca killed 33 people in 2003.

Those attacks - carried out by 12 suicide operatives who came from one of Casablanca's main shanty towns - greatly affected public opinion.

Morocco has since improved its security and legal framework, alongside boosting supervision of religious affairs and anti-terror cooperation with other states.