The public prosecutor referred to 45 recently arrested members of the terrorist group Sham al-Islam, which was formed by Brahim Benchekroune and Mohamed Maz to recruit and train Moroccan jihadists for combat in Syria and attacks in Morocco. Other Moroccan Salafists, including former bin Laden bodyguard Abdellah Tabark, are also thought to have gone to Syria to fight. Since the May 2003 suicide attacks in Casablanca, Moroccan authorities have foiled 266 terrorist plots and dismantled 114 terror cells. Prosecutors are investigating Salafist cleric Abdelhamid Abounaim, who had distributed a video denouncing an opposition party leader as an apostate.
