At the end of a collaboration with the Italian intelligence services, a Moroccan, presented as an official of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), was arrested in Italy, announced the Moroccan authorities, this Saturday.
In a press release, the services of the Directorate General of Territorial Surveillance (DGST) indicated that they “proceeded, on Friday, in close coordination with the Italian security services in charge of terrorism cases, to the arrest (in Italy) of a Moroccan citizen who held positions of responsibility within the terrorist organization “Daesh” in its traditional strongholds on the Syrian-Iraqi scene “, using the Arabic acronym of ISIS.
Towards an extradition of the suspect?
According to the DGST, the suspect, alias “Abi Al-Barae”, had succeeded in illegally immigrating to Europe from combat sites under IS control. He was the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by Morocco, according to the same source who specified that the authorities concerned were working on “sending the extradition file of the person concerned”. In February, a Moroccan counterterrorism official said more than 1,600 Moroccans had joined the ranks of terrorist organizations in recent years, mostly ISIS.
Among them, 270 Moroccans returned from the combat zones (Syria, Iraq and Libya) and 745 died there. Of those who returned, 137 were brought to justice. The war in Syria from 2011 has notably allowed the meteoric expansion of ISIS, which in 2014 proclaimed a “caliphate” on conquered lands straddling Syria and Iraq. The “caliphate” was wiped off the map in March 2019 in Syria, but is experiencing a resurgence after being transferred to an underground organization.