ADRIAN MORGAN: 16 KILLED IN MOROCCAN BOMB BLAST: IS AL QAEDA INVOLVED?
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16 Killed in Moroccan Bomb Blast:Is Al-Qaeda Involved?
On Thursday at midday local time, April 28, an explosion ripped through the Argana Restaurant in Marrakesh, Morocco. The force of the blast tore off the roof of the restaurant. Initial reports assumed it was a gas explosion, and then it became clear that the blast was the result of a bomb. The Moroccan Interior Ministry released a statement which read:
“Analysis of the early evidence collected at the site of the blast that occurred on Thursday at a cafe in Marrakesh confirms the theory of an attack.”
Now, it is widely presumed that the explosion was a result of a suicide attack.
The Argana restaurant is popular with tourists. It is situated in Jamaa el-Fna square in Marrakesh (also called Djemaa El Fna or Jamaa Lafna square), where markets attract foreign visitors. It appears that the majority of the victims are tourists. At least 20 other people were injured. Initially news reports claimed that there were 14 fatalities, but that number has been raised to 16.
The news is carried by the Telegraph, Daily Mail (with extensive pictures), Reuters, New York Times, Sky News, Bloomberg, and the BBC.
So far, Morocco has managed to avoid the conflagrations of the “Arab Spring” that have led to regime change in Egypt and Tunisia, and deaths in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and a full-scale civil war in Libya. When Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia onDecember 17, 2010, precipitating the domino-effect of Arab unrest, there were attempts to commit similar situations.In Algeria, which lies adjacent to Morocco, four people set fire to themselves, and in Egypt other individuals set themselves on fire, hoping to achieve similar results. One such self-immolation in Cairo, Egypt, was caught on camera. A similar action took place in Saudi Arabia.
One self-immolation did take place in Morocco, but this was not in protest at conditions in the country. On that occasion, a Mauritanian was apparently protesting against the situation in his own country in West Africa. Morocco has – under the leadership of Mohammed VI (Sidi Moulay Mohammed who became king in 1999) – engaged in social reform, and is welcoming for foreign tourists, who provide a substantial part of the nation’s income.
The bomb blast that took place yesterday led to an immediate dip in the value of Moroccan stocks, but hopefully tourism will quickly recover, as did Egyptian tourism in Red Sea resorts after the 2005 bomb blasts in Sharm el-Sheikh.
An Al-Qaeda attack?
In today’s Telegraph newspaper, it is reported that al-Qaeda is being viewed as a suspect in yesterday’s bombings. Khalid Naciri, Morocco’s communications minister said:
“All leads will be investigated, including al-Qaeda. The investigation continues to find the perpetrators, but for the moment I am not prepared to point the finger. .. This is a terrorist act, a deliberate criminal act. Morocco is facing the same threats as in May 2003 and it will deal with them diligently and determinedly. According to the information I have, it could have been perpetrated by a suicide bomber.”
The May 16, 2003 attack that Naciri mentioned was a series of suicide attacks upon various targets in Casablanca – including Jewish targets. These were carried out by 12 suicide bombers from a group called Salafia Jihadia. They and 32 innocent people were killed. The bombing that took place yesterday in the Argana restaurant is the most serious attack in Morocco since the 2003 Casablanca bombings.
The leader of the Salafia Jihadia group is a man called Mohamed Fizazi, or Mohammed al-Fizazi. Moroccan-born Fizazi’s direct links to al-Qaeda stem from his role as the imam of the al-Qods (also called the “Taiba Masjid”) mosque in Hamburg, Germany. Fizazi had become the imam of this mosque in 1999, and had acted as a spiritual guide to the members of the Hamburg Cell who took part in the 9/11 attacks. Three of the 19 terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks were worshippers at Fizazi’s mosque. These were Mohamed Atta, who flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower of the WTC, and Ziad Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehi who were on United Airlines Flight 93, which flew into a field in Pennsylvania. Ziad Jarrah was believed to have been at the controls of the plane when it crashed.
Salafia Jihadiya.
Fizazi is a notorious anti-Semite. In a videotaped sermon, made before 9/11, Fizazi had declared: “The Jews and crusaders must have their throats slit.”
Fizazi is said to have had communications with Jamal Zougam, Mohamed Chaoui, and Abelaziz Benyaich from northern Morocco, three of the individuals who are charged with involvement in the Madrid train bombings of March 11, 2004.
Salafia Jihadia or Salafia Yihadia, which is also known as At-Takfir wal-Hijrah, was formed in the 1990s. As well as carrying out the 2003 Casablanca bombings, the group carried out murders of Jews in Morocco. On the second anniversary of 9/11, a leading Jewish Moroccan, Albert Ribido, was killed by Salafia Jihadia. Ribido was a timber trader in Casablanca, who was shot dead by two hooded gunmen. Among the individuals from Salafia Jihadiya who were found guilty of plotting to murder Albert Ribido were two policemen.
The Casablanca bombings had attacked three Jewish targets, including a Jewish cemetery and a Jewish-owned restaurant.
One of Salafia Jihadia’s commanders, Yusef Fikri was sentenced to death on July 12, 2003 for his part in the May 16 Casablanca bombings. 21 members of Fikri’s cell were sentenced to terms ranging from 12 months to life imprisonment. Eight people were given life sentences, seven received 20 year terms, five had 10 year jail terms, and one individual was sentenced to a year’s jail.
Fikri had been a leading member of a separate group, called “As-Sirat al Moustakin” (the Right Path) which he had founded in 1999. In 2000, he and others had decapitated a man who had allegedly insulted the founder of Islam, and had scattered his dismembered remains around Casablanca.
Another leading figure of As-Sirat al Moustakin was Zakaria Miloud On February 24, 2002 he had presided over the stoning to death of an “impious” Muslim in a shanty town called Sekouli in the slum region of Sidi Moumen in Casablanca. In late 2000, As-Sirat al Moustakin worked in parallel with Salafia Jihadia.
The rise of Salafist extremists in Morocco had not been noticed until the Casablanca attacks, but the growth of extremists groups had been assisted by Saudi Arabia. According to the Jamestown Foundation, during the 1980s:
In an effort to counter balance the growing power of the Islamists the late King Hassan II opened the door to Saudi Arabia that was keen to promote Wahhabism inside Morocco. The Saudis began to channel significant funds into Morocco and developed institutions to spread their own propaganda, including setting up Qu’ranic schools and charitable organisations. They also brought Moroccans to train in Saudi Arabia, thus creating a new generation of radical preachers who had been schooled in a rigid interpretation of Islam. These included Omar al-Haddouci, Hassan Kettani, Ahmed al-Raffiki, Abdelkarim Chadli and Mohamed Fizazi who were officially sanctioned as imams in Morocco and were subsequently sent to Europe and Asia by the monarchy to spread Islam.
The suspected organizer of the Casablanca bombings, Abdelhaq Mousabbat, died of liver failure in May 2003, shortly after the attacks. Ten members of Salafia Jihadia (including Fikri himself, Mohamed Damir, Saleh Zarli, Abderrazak Faouzi, Kamal Hanuichi, Bouchaib Guermach, Lakbir Kutubi, Buchaib Mghader, Omar Maaruf and Laarbi Daqiq) were sentenced to death for involvement in the plot to carry out the Casablanca bombings. The majority of the Casablanca bombers came from Sidi Moumen. Though born in Tangier, in the north of the country, Mohammed Fizazi had moved to this slum suburb where he found recruits to his cause.
Just before the May 16, 2003 attacks, Fizazi had issued a fatwa against the state of Morocco, accusing it of apostasy. Such an announcement, known as “takfir” is a serious denouncing of a leader, urging his overthrow, and is seen as a declaration of war.
Merging of Terror Operations
It has been argued that Salafia Jihadia, rather than being a coherent entity is in fact a grouping of smaller autonomous cells. In late 2004, the Moroccan Justice Ministry stated that Salafia Jihadia had 699 activists.
Salafia Jihadia has been linked by some experts to the group known as GICM (Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain), an Islamist group that was designated by the U.S. Treasury as a terrorist organization, under Executive Order 13224 on November 22, 2002.
The GICM group in turn is also said to have formed alliances in Europe, particularly in Spain, with a larger and more effective terrorist group which was called GSPC. The GSPC group is now directly affiliated with al-Qaeda. Under this umbrella, there appears to be a confluence of most of the Islamist groups operating in the Western part of North Africa, which I will discuss shortly.
Some Salafia Jihadia operatives are also said to have been involved with the attacks on Madrid train station on March 11, 2004, in which 191 people were killed and more than 1,800 were injured. Abdelkrim Mejjati was one of the suspects in the Madrid bombings. He was also a suspect in the Casablanca attacks.
In February 2009, Saad Housseini was sentenced in Rabat, Morocco, to 15 years’ jail for his part in plotting the 2003 Casablanca bombings. Housseini, a chemistry graduate who was “trained” in Afghanistan is also wanted in Spain, as he is believed to have manufactured the bombs that were used in the March 11, 2004 attacks at Madrid.
The March 2004 Madrid attacks are believed to have received no direct funding from al Qaeda. The plot was inspired by al Qaeda, but not directly connected. Some perpetrators did appear to have connections to related groups. Moroccan-born Jamal Zougam was given a 40-year jail sentence on October 31, 2007 for his part in the Madrid attacks.
Additionally, Youssef Belhadj was given a 12-year sentence at the Madrid trial, after being convicted of belonging to a terrorist group. Belhadj is believed to be a member of GICM, and also is thought by authorities to be “Aby Dujanah” the individual who announced on an audio tape that the bombings were the work of al Qaeda. He too is thought to be linked to the group that carried out the Casablanca bombings.
A French investigator specializing in terror financing, Jean-Charles Brisard, announced on March 16, 2004 that he had encountered a transcript of a phone conversation in the indictment notes assembled by Judge Baltazar Garzon. Zougam had been in a phone conversation with Imad Yarkas. Zougam told this individual: “On Friday, I went to see Fizazi and I told him that if he needed money we could help him with our brothers.”
Fizazi, the head of Salafia Jihadia, was sentenced to 30 years’ jail in August 2003 for his involvement in the Casablanca bombings.
Al Qaeda, AQIM, GIA and GSPC
Algeria is a nation that nearly became an Islamist sharia state in 1991, when the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) came close to winning a general election. In December of that year, the election was cancelled after initial returns, and a military coup in January 1992 ensured the FIS had no chance of gaining power. The Islamists then fought the government and a civil war lasted until 1992, in which up to a quarter of a million people were killed. The FIS went through changes of name, becoming the Groupe Islamique Armé (GIA) and then GSPC ( Groupe salafiste pour la prédication et le combat or Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat). Both groups mounted terrorist attacks in Europe and the GSPC has cells in Norway, Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, Britain and Italy.
GSPC was founded in 1998 from an offshoot of GIA, the “Armed Islamic Group” based in Algeria. GIA had originally been approved by al Qaeda, according to jihad ideologue and Al Qaeda “defector” Sayyed Imam al-Sharif (aka “Dr. Fadl“). Al Qaeda had support from, and influence over, groups such as the GIA, and then the GSPC, as well as the Tunisian Combat Group, and the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM).
Abu Musab Abdelwadud
GSPC officially became Al–Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on September 11, 2006, when its leader Abu Musab Abdelwadud announced on the internet that
“We pledge allegiance to Sheikh Osama bin Laden… We will pursue our jihad in Algeria. Our soldiers are at his call so that he may strike who and where he likes.”
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the deputy leader of al Qaeda, and its logistical chief, also made a video statement on the website. Zawahiri stated:
“Osama bin Laden has told me to announce to Muslims that the GSPC [the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat] has joined al Qaeda. This should be a source of chagrin, frustration and sadness for the apostates, the treacherous sons of France.”
As well as urging the reformed GSPC to become “a bone in the throat of the American and French crusaders,” Zawahiri urged:
“We pray to God that our brothers from the GSPC succeed in causing harm to the top members of the crusader coalition, and particularly their leader, the vicious America.”
AQIM has influence in the Sahel from Mauritania, Mali and Chad and throughout the southern desert regions of Algeria.
Recently, AQIM has been active in kidnappings and murders of foreigners in the region of the Sahel. It has gained substantial income from ransoms, and has already got control of many of the routes used by smugglers and tribal groups.
So far, there is no active evidence that AQIM is behind the Marrakesh bombing, but AQIM has the best logistics and finances to set in motion such an operation. It also has – through the former GSPC cells in Europe – the ability to bring “clean suits” and money to the purpose of creating terrorist outrages.
With widespread destabilization of the Maghreb in Libya, and with southern Algeria only barely controlled by forces loyal to President Boutelfika, it would be unsurprising for Al Qaeda to take advantage of the situation to attempt to destabilize Morocco and also Algeria.
Ultimately, AQIM has the intention of reoccupying Spain, which it still calls “Al-Andalus”, the name of a Spanish Muslim kingdom where an Ummayad dynasty held power from the eighth century until its defeat in 1492. Symbolically, Morocco is the bridging point from which Tarik ibn Zayid launched his invasion of Spain in 711 AD.
Adrian Morgan
The Editor, Family Security Matters.
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