Minister of Interior Chakib Benmoussa of Morocco

Benmoussa said several of Bellirajs followers traveled to Afghanistan in 2001 to train alongside militants who founded a Moroccan group there with the blessing and financial help of Al Qaeda leader Osama binLaden.

Benmoussa said the two countries will step up cooperation in fighting terrorism, especially in the dismantlement of a number of terrorist cells in the region.

Commenting on the arrests on September 1, Minister Benmoussa said in a statement, "The members of this group were planning terrorist attacks targeting tourist sites, strategic government facilities and foreign holdings, and assassinations of prominent figures for political or moral reasons.

Benmoussa said members of the network, launched in 1992, had carried out murders in Belgium, where its Moroccan leader, Abdelkader Belliraj, lived.

Benmoussa said the group had carried outcrimes internationally Police found at least 34 weapons, including Israeli-made Uzi and Kalashnikov assault rifles and machine guns, in raids onhomes and offices of the suspects.

destabilize this moderate Muslim nation.

Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said the group had created a paramilitary branch which chose mountainous areas in northern Morocco to train its followers for a holy war and obtain arms with the help of local drug barons.

Benmoussa said one of those groups, discovered in November last year, had links with al Qaeda and wanted to set up a terrorist network across the Maghreb.

On Thursday Chakib Benmoussa was briefing members of the House of Representatives' Commission of the Interior, Decentralization and Infrastructures, and was referring to the recent dismantle of an alleged terrorist group, called "Jamaat Ansar el Mehdi" whose members are in custody.

In a rare news conference in August, Benmoussa said Rehioui was a confidant of Khattab and knowingly gave him $17,280 for terrorist activities.

Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said the funding would support several projects designed to reduce poverty in the region and point out the country's sovereignty over Western Sahara, the Med Basin Newsline reported Tuesday.

Benmoussa said Moroccan officials also would propose granting autonomy to the southern provinces.

Benmoussa said the economic and human development projects are in partnership with the private sector and are in accordance with the principles of the National Initiative for Human Development.

js */FREuropean CommissionEDD 2008ChakibBENMOUSSAHomepageWelcomeMedia cornerNewsletterPrevious editionsEDD: THE FORUMAbout the forumPractical detailsAgendaDevelopment villageTwinningParticipantsPanellistsEDD: THE 'OFF'About the 'OFF'CompetitionsChakib BENMOUSSAInterior Minister of MoroccoChakib Benmoussa is the current Interior Minister of Morocco and the lead negotiator for the Moroccan side in the Western Sahara conflict.

headquarters of Brinks had seized assets worth nearly $4 million.

Benmoussa said the People's Movement (MP) came third with 43 seats followed by the National Rally of Independents (RNI) with 38 seats.

However, Moroccan Minister of the Interior Chakib Benmoussa said Saturday that Belgian intelligence clearly "knew" Abdelkader Belliraj, though he added the terrorist was "apparently a master of deception.

Benmoussa said that the group smuggled the largest weapons cache to be discovered in 15 years into Morocco, in two batches.

RABAT - Flooding in Morocco has killed 28 people and caused major damage in various parts of the country, Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said Thursday.

Human rights activists have accused authorities of detaining innocent people and using torture in the campaign, but Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa was quoted by the official MAP news agency as saying the latest arrests showed the need for strong anti-terrorism operations.

The members of this group were planning terrorist attacks targeting tourist sites, strategic government facilities and foreign holdings, and assassinations of prominent figures for political or moral reasons," Benmoussa said in a statement.

Four of the suspects were women, including the wives of two pilots for Royal Air Maroc, Benmoussa was quoted as saying by MAP.

Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said in an interview that the group plotted to assassinate Cabinet ministers, military chiefs and Jewish leaders in order to destabilize this moderate Muslim nation.

Marrakesh,Morocco - International terrorism, drug and other criminal networks are extending their areas of operation, making police cooperation across frontiers more necessary than ever, MoroccanInterior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said Monday.

Benmoussa was speaking to the 76th general assembly of the police organization Interpol in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh, where about 580 delegates from 140 countries are meeting until Thursday.

yahooBuzzArticleSummary = "Marrakesh,Morocco - International terrorism, drug and other criminal networks are extending their areas of operation, making police cooperation across frontiers more necessary than ever, MoroccanInterior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said Monday.

Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said his country's police authorities.

The arrests in the Hay al-Farah neighborhood came a day after Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said authorities were still searching for "three or four suspects" allegedly linked to the bombers in Tuesday\'s attack that stoked new fears of terrorism in the North African kingdom.

var RTR_ArticleBlurb = " CASABLANCA, April 11 (Reuters) - Bomb blasts in Morocco and Algeria in the past two days were the uncoordinated work of different terrorist groups, Moroccan Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said on Wednesday.

CASABLANCA, April 11 (Reuters) - Bomb blasts in Morocco and Algeria in the past two days were the uncoordinated work of different terrorist groups, Moroccan Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said on Wednesday.

Benmoussa said the authorities had arrested 31 members of the gang since then and that three or four were still on the run.

On Aug 31, Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said at a press conference that suspects were believed to be part of a group called Ansar el-Mehdi (the "Mehdi Partisans" or "Mehdi Support Group") that had been planning strikes against tourist destinations, government installations, foreign businesses and prominent Moroccans -- including several politicians.

In a previous press conference, Benmoussa had said the disrupted network was equipped to carry out attacks that would eclipse the May 2003 strikes in Casablanca, in which 45 people died.

Benmoussa said the group had received money from Ansar al-Mehdi, a separate suspected terrorist network dismantled last summer.

Benmoussa said the "Belliraj" network had been founded in 1992, and had established links with GICM (Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain), the group which carried out the Madrid train bombings of March 11, 2004, killing 191 people.

Benmoussa said the Islamist network had financed itself through crime, with proceeds from a 2001 robbery at the HQ of Brinks, Luxembourg being smuggled into Morocco.

Benmoussa said the group had been in contact with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2001.