Polisario Front Linked To Al Qaeda

The Polisario Front is fighting for Independance for Western Sahara, A region South of Morocco on Africa's west coast. They appear to have created significant connections to AQIM, al Qaedas Organization in the Sahel.

This suggests the likelyhood that a deal has been struck between them, so that when Western Sahara becomes a separate nation, It will become an Islamic State, following the lead of The Islamic Emerite of Somalia, The Islamic Emerite of Yemen, The Islamic Emerite of the Caucuses, etc.

Formal terror training camps will follow, as the "dream caliphate" Islamist multi-nation continues to be formed out of little ppockes of countries controlled by Al Aqeda and funded by Ikhwan business networks.

Shimron Issachar

*************************************
Zakia Abdennel

RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco said it had arrested a member of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) among 26 others who planned to attack security services and rob banks using weapons they hid in an area of the disputed Western Sahara.

Quoting an interior ministry statement, official media said Moroccan security forces recently broke up the 27-member cell and had discovered weapon caches in Amghala, an oasis located in the disputed Western Sahara.

"Moroccan security services have succeeded in dismantling a terrorist cell of 27 members, among whom is a member of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb who was tasked by this organisation to set up a rear base in Morocco where it would plan terrorist acts," it said.

The ministry did not say when or where they were arrested.

"Members of the cell, supervised by a Moroccan citizen who is in the Al Qaeda camps in northern Mali, have been planning terrorist acts using explosive belts and car bombs that mainly target security services and to rob banks to fund their terrorist projects," it added.

The cell members also planned to send recruits "to AQIM camps in Algeria and Mali to undergo paramilitary training before returning to Morocco to execute their destructive plans using the weapons discovered near Amghala," it added.

Mohamed Darif, an expert on Islamic militancy in Morocco, said the latest arrest is the first to suggest the existence of links between AQIM and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front which seeks independence in the Western Sahara.

"It is only a matter of time before Moroccan authorities officially announce the existence of links between this cell and the Polisario Front. This would give credence to the Moroccan thesis on the existence of links between AQIM and the Polisario," Darif said

The Polisario has been battling for independence for the Western Sahara for 35 years.
Since the rise of AQIM over the last few years, the Moroccan government has said that giving territory to the Polisario in the Western Sahara could make it a haven for Islamist militancy.
Algeria, Polisario's main supporter, is itself battling AQIM militants, some of whom are the inheritors of a movement which led to a bloody civil war from 1991 to 2002.

Violence linked to militancy is rare in Morocco, a staunch Western ally with a reputation for stability that has helped to entice millions of tourists to visit the country.

The last big attack was a series of suicide bombings in the economic capital, Casablanca, in 2003 that killed 45 people.

Since then security services say they have rounded up more than 60 radical cells.

The Rest @ Reuters.com