Morocco says cell plotting foreign attacks arrested

Security forces have arrested six Moroccans suspected of planning attacks in the country and abroad, the interior ministry said on Monday.

The ministry did not reveal when or where they were arrested, but said the six were experts in making explosives and had planned to use them for attacks in unspecified countries.

They also planned attacks using car bombs against foreign interests in Morocco and against Moroccan institutions and security facilities, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official MAP news agency.

The cell was also "active in cyber-terrorism", the ministry added, without giving details on this aspect of its activity.

"Members of this network have acquired a broad experience in the making of explosives and planned to use it in sabotage acts in several international hotspots... as well as within national territory," it said.

The statement did not name the foreign countries nor whose interests in Morocco were targeted by the alleged sabotage plots.

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.