The Moroccan intelligence service has arrested five Saudis linked with al-Qaeda suspected of preparing a terrorist attack in Morocco, a police source said here late on Monday.
The five were arrested on May 11, said the source who asked to remain anonymous.
The leader of the group, Abdallah el-Gareh (32) was picked up at Casablanca airport, the source said. Gareh was still being questioned by police.
No details were given about the nature of the attack, which was to have taken place “on Moroccan territory,” or about the group’s “indirect” links with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network.
The Moroccan security service was tipped off to the group’s presence by the US Central Intelligence Agency, the source said.
Meanwhile the French weekly L’Express, due out on Thursday, reports that the Moroccan intelligence service at the end of May dismantled a group of al-Qaeda “sleepers” who were setting up a suicide attack against NATO ships in the Straits of Gibraltar.
Without quoting any sources, but playing up the role of the Moroccan intelligence service and the royal gendarmerie, the weekly said, “Morocco has arrested very discreetly al-Qaeda agents who were preparing to blow up ships of NATO or the American Fleet in the Straits of Gibraltar.” – AFP