Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has been quietly building a presence in Morocco.

ISIL is believed to have established cells in several regions of Morocco. The Al Qaida-aligned movement is said to have focused on the northern region of the North African kingdom, including Laarache and Tangier.

“ISIL has plenty of money and are buying supporters,” a security source said.

The source said the ISIL presence stemmed from nearly two years of recruitment of Moroccans for the wars in Iraq and Syria. He said more than 2,000 Moroccans were mobilized for these campaigns, some of whom returned to
establish ISIL cells.

In July 2014, ISIL posted a video of recruitment efforts in Morocco. A 28-year-old operative identified as Mohammed Hamdouch, a former resident of the northern town of Fnideq, was seen beheading five people in Syria.

“The northern region has been neglected, if not completely forgotten, since independence,” Mountacir Zian, director of Mediterranean Strategic Analysis and Intelligence, said.

The Moroccan government has not acknowledged the ISIL presence although it reported the arrest of more than a dozen suspected operatives. But analysts asserted that northern Morocco was becoming a hotbed of Al Qaida
support.

“For a long time we’ve been drawing people’s attention to the existence of international fundamentalism in the northern region,” Abbassi Mustapha, an analyst, told the U.S. Central Command-sponsored Magharebia. “The facts show that radicals have always had connections with this easy money.”

ISIL was also said to have attracted criminals from a range of cities. The criminals, using ISIL connections abroad, were said to involved in smuggling and drug trafficking.

Tangier was also said to be a stronghold of ISIL. In July, a French national was arrested on charges of recruiting fighters for ISIL’s campaigns in Iraq and Syria.

“Furthermore, they are permanently in contact with Moroccans who have settled in Europe,” Human Rights Defense Association chairman Lahbib Haji said. “That makes it easier to recruit them.”

  Cash-flush ISIL ‘buying supporters’ in northern Morocco, Larrache, Mediterranean Strategic Analysis, Mohammed Hamdouch, Tangier