Det marockanska terrornätverket

Apropå de holländska mediaspekulationerna igår:

Om man ska spekulera i vilken organisation som kan

ligga bakom terrorplanerna i Rotterdam så torde

marockanska GICM vara troligare än Al-Qaeda

i Nederländerna.

***

Moroccan Combatant Group (GICM)

On March 11, 2004, Spain experienced the largest terrorist

attack against a Western country since the attacks on

America of Sept. 11, 2001. More than 200 people were

killed, and 1,500 injured when 10 bombs ripped through

metro trains during the height of Madrid’s rush hour.

The Spanish government immediately blamed the separatist

group Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA); however,

subsequent investigations have led to the belief that the

bombings were carried out not by ETA but by the

Moroccan Combatant Group (GICM from its French

acronym) – the terrorist organization believed to be b

ehind attacks in Morocco a year earlier.
**
In May 16, 2003, five simultaneous bombs hit Casablanca,

killing 45, including 12 bombers. The GICM was blamed

for the attacks. Yet this group is still very much a mystery

to both the public and investigators. There is no definitive

answer about who the group’s leader is, and a string of

arrests spanning Europe has led more to conjecture that

this GICM may be a pseudonym for a larger web of

terrorists with links to al Qaeda and the international

jihadist movement.
**
The United States Department of State “Patterns of

Global Terror” report states that GICM emerged in

the late 1990s, however it is speculated that its founding

dates back to the early 1990s, when it was formed by

veteran mujahadeen of the war against the Soviet

occupation of Afghanistan. Morocco first experienced

Islamic radicalism in 1969 with the birth of the Shabiba

Islamiya. This organization split into two factions, and

one of the groups that emerged came to be known

as the Moroccan Combatant Group (GICM).

They are believed to operate in the UK, Denmark,

Belgium, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Spain and France,

and to deal in the trafficking of falsified documents

and arms smuggling. The U.S. State Department

lists the organization’s goals as: the creation of an

Islamic State, followed by supporting al Qaeda’s

war against the West. Consequently, the U.S. has frozen

the organizations assets under EO 13224.
**
The GICM gained public notoriety in 2003 with the

bombing of Casablanca. Soon after the attack and a

number of arrests, four accused were given the

death sentence, and 39 others long-term sentences.

Mohamed Fizazi, who was given 30 years in prison,

is believed linked to both the Madrid bombing, and

al Qaeda. Fizazi preached at the same al-Qods mosque

that the Sept. 11 hijackers’ leader Mohamed Atta attended

while studying in Germany. He was preaching in

Tangiers until his arrest in-conjunction to the Casablanca

bombing. It was here where he caught the ear of

Jamal Zougam, who is now a prime suspect in the

Madrid case. As the unfolding Madrid bombing

investigation shows, Fizazi’s ties (and those of others)

to al Qaeda indicate that GICM is part of a larger,

overlapping Islamic movement.
**
Madrid may appear an unorthodox location to bomb

if one’s ambitions are a Moroccan Islamic State.

Yet, GICM is now believed to be behind the attacks

that occurred in the Spanish capital on March 11,

2003. Zougam was arrested almost immediately

after the bombing when police recovered part of a

cell-phone’s SIM card which they were able to

trace to the phone shop he owned. His arrest is

adding to investigators' understanding of the extent

to which GICM has infiltrated Europe and the group’s

connections to al Qaeda. Zougam had lived in Spain

since he was 10 years old, and later traveled outside

the country – apparently on business related to his

phone shop. These trips would often take him to

Tangiers where investigators suspect the roots

of the Madrid attack lie. Here Zougam was believed

to have come into contact with Imad Eddin Barakat

Yarkas (known as Abu Dahdah) – arrested in Spain

in connection with the September 11 bombing.
**
Zougman also is reported to have met with Abdelaziz

Benyaich in April 2003. Although not believed to be

associated with the Madrid bombings, Benyaich had

been working with Islamic militants in northern

Morocco, and was arrested in Spain soon after the

Casablanca attacks. An investigation found that Benyaich

had been involved in testing cell phone devices that

could set off bombs similar to the ones used in Madrid.

He has also been linked with Abu Musab Zarqawi –

a suspected leader of the Iraqi insurgency who is also

believed to have carried out the on-camera beheading

of American Nick Berg – Zougram and Benyaich.
**
Ongoing investigations continue to shed light on the

structure of GICM. Spainish authorities arrested 16 suspects,

11 of them Moroccan, in connection with the March 13

bombing. Then on April 3, 2004, suspected terrorists

blew themselves up after being cornered by police

in a flat in the Madrid suburb of Leganes. Among the

remains later identified were those of the alleged

leader of the March 11 attacks – Serhane Abdelmajid

Fakhet, a Tunisian. Just two days after Fakhet and

others blew themselves up; French authorities detained

13 suspected militants in a dawn raid stemming from

the attack in Casablanca one year earlier.
**
Until recently, Mohamed Guerbouzi was thought by

Moroccan authorities to be the head of the GICM

– but this point is still debatable. Currently, Guerbouzi

lives in England, but is being extradited by Morocco

to serve twenty years in prison. Confessions from

Noureddine Nfia, who was convicted and sentenced

to 20 years for his role in the Casablanca attack,

reportedly implicate Taeb Bentizi as the GICM’s leader.

Mohamed Guerbouzi is alleged to be his deputy.

A report compiled from Nfia’s confession also claims

that GICM has sleeper cells in Britain, Belgium, France,

Italy and Canada.

****

(CDI)