Spanish police arrested two Moroccan men

Two Moroccan men has been arrested on Wednesday (IST) by Spanish police in suspected of having links to Islamic terrorism.

An official of Spanish police said that the one man among arrested was wanted in connection with attacks in Casablanca in 2003. The official said that the arrests were made in Melilla, a Spanish enclave of about 68,000 people on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, with Spanish Civil Guards acting on international arrests warrants issued by Morocco.

Moroccan authorities have linked one of the suspects, Ali Aarass, to the Casablanca bombings in May 2003 that killed 33 bystanders & 12 suicide bombers. He is suspected of Islamic extremist activities during the past 16 years.

The other man, Mohamed El Bay, is wanted for alleged involvement with a terrorist network that Moroccan police broke up last February, when they arrested 30 people suspected of plotting attacks against Moroccan government targets.

Morocco authorities believe Mohamed El Bay may have been in charge of contacting Central European arms smugglers to get weapons & explosives for the alleged plot in Morocco.