Five more arrested over Scandinavian tourists' murder in Morocco
Five more people have been arrested in connection with the murder of two Scandinavian tourists in Morocco's High Atlas mountains last week, the country's counter-terror chief said on Monday.
This brings to 18 the total number of suspects detained over the double murder, said Abdelhak Khiam, head of Morocco's central office for judicial investigation.
The latest arrests were made in several cities in the kingdom.
The four main suspects in what the authorities describe as a terrorist act were arrested between Monday and Thursday last week in the tourist hub city of Marrakesh.
Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway were found dead early on December 17 near the village of Imlil on route to Toubkal, North Africa's highest peak and a popular hiking and trekking destination.
"The two victims were stabbed, had their throats slit and were then beheaded," Khiam told AFP news agency.
The four main suspects, aged between 25 and 30, had pledged allegiance to ISIL in a video made three days before the bodies were found, but without agreeing this in advance with any foreign group, police and domestic intelligence spokesperson Boubker Sabik said on the state 2M TV channel on Sunday.
He described the four men as "lone wolves," adding that "the crime was not coordinated with (ISIL)."
The killings have shaken Norway, Denmark and Morocco.
Compared with other countries in North Africa, Morocco has been largely insulated from militant attacks.
In 2011, a bomb blast at a cafe in Marrakesh's famed Jamaa El Fna Square killed 17 people, mostly European tourists. An attack in the financial capital Casablanca killed 33 people in 2003.
Tourism is a cornerstone of Morocco's economy, accounting for 10 percent of national income.
Since 2002, Morocco has dismantled 185 terror cells and taken measures to rehabilitate those arrested, said Khiam.
Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway were found dead early on December 17 near the village of Imlil on route to Toubkal, North Africa's highest peak and a popular hiking and trekking destination.
"The two victims were stabbed, had their throats slit and were then beheaded," Khiam told AFP news agency.
The four main suspects, aged between 25 and 30, had pledged allegiance to ISIL in a video made three days before the bodies were found, but without agreeing this in advance with any foreign group, police and domestic intelligence spokesperson Boubker Sabik said on the state 2M TV channel on Sunday.
He described the four men as "lone wolves," adding that "the crime was not coordinated with (ISIL)."
The killings have shaken Norway, Denmark and Morocco.
Compared with other countries in North Africa, Morocco has been largely insulated from militant attacks.
In 2011, a bomb blast at a cafe in Marrakesh's famed Jamaa El Fna Square killed 17 people, mostly European tourists. An attack in the financial capital Casablanca killed 33 people in 2003.
Tourism is a cornerstone of Morocco's economy, accounting for 10 percent of national income.
Since 2002, Morocco has dismantled 185 terror cells and taken measures to rehabilitate those arrested, said Khiam.
(Top picture: A tribute to Louisa Vesterager Jespersen (L) and Maren Ueland (R), along with flowers and the flags of Morocco and Norway is seen in Marrakesh, Morocco, December 21, 2018.
