Top Moroccan Security Officer Fired Over Islamist Plot

Morocco’s King Muhammad VI has removed a senior security officer from his position, following the exposure of an Islamist plot to infiltrate the police and armed forces, Moroccan officials said.

Last month government officials broke up an Islamist group called An’sar Al-Mahdi, which had managed to recruit at least nine members of the police and military.

Hamidou Laanigri, the chief of National Security, was the second high-ranking official to lose his position following the crackdown, Reuters reported.

Muhammad Belbachir, a military intelligence service chief, was fired last month because of what official described as his failure to prevent radical Islamists from penetrating the military.

The government said the Islamist group was planning to launch a holy war against Morocco and turn it into an Islamist state. Fifty six members of the group were arrested.

The Media Line