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Security official says Morocco foiled suicide attack on election day

Xinhua, October 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

A Moroccan security official said on Tuesday that authorities had foiled a planned suicide attack on Oct. 7 parliamentary elections after the arrest of 10 women with suspected links to the Islamic State (IS) group.

The interior ministry said on Monday that for the first time an all-female cell had been busted, the latest in series of militant cells the North African kingdom has dismantled.

"We found products used in making explosives. One of the girls was ready to commit a suicide attack on Oct. 7 with an explosive belt," Director of Morocco's Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ), Abdelhak Khiame, said at a press briefing at the BCIJ headquarters in the city of Salé.

The arrested women are mostly minors, two aged 15, two aged 16 and three 17, and all have pledged allegiance to the so-called IS, according to Khiame.

He said these women contacted operational elements of IS via internet and had been subjected to brainwashing to commit destructive acts targeting sensitive facilities and particularly tourist sites.

Morocco has been facing a growing threat from the IS.

The Moroccan interior ministry said that since 2002, more than 160 terrorist cells with close ties to terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria have been dismantled. Endit