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On Friday, March 17, 2023, a high-ranking security official revealed that the murder of a Moroccan policeman about two weeks ago was terrorist-motivated, and that the perpetrators were three people who “declared allegiance to the Islamic State” and intended to join the group’s strongholds in the Sahel and Sahara region.
Habboub al-Sharqawi, director of the Central Office for Judicial Research, which deals with terrorism and major crimes, said in a press conference that the three detainees had recently declared their allegiance to the Islamic State, as part of a “collective project aimed at seriously harming public order.”
He added that “they were planning to join the organization’s camps in the coastal region, before they backed down from this endeavor due to the lack of sufficient funding sources for travel, which prompted them to adopt an alternative proposition, which is carrying out local terrorist operations targeting security men, banking agencies, and banking institutions.”
The crime dates back to the beginning of this month, when the suspects “deliberately set fire to the private police car.” Al-Sharqawi said that the leader of the group is a 31-year-old man, and the other two are 37 and 50.
One of the three detainees was arrested in Sidi Harazem, an area near Fez, and the other two, one of them the leader of the group, were arrested in Casablanca.
