Interior Ministry: 3 Moroccan have been arrested

Restaurant & Cafe Argana Three Moroccans were arrested, including the main perpetrator of the April 28 attack at the café of Argana in Marrakech, Morocco\'s Interior Ministry said Thursday in a statement. The statement said that following the terrorist act in Marrakech, leaving 16 dead and 21 wounded, the services of the Directorate General for monitoring the national territory carried out careful and thorough investigations, which have enabled security services to arrest three Moroccan nationals, including the main perpetrator of this terrorist act.
The main perpetrator, imbued with the jihadist ideology and who swore allegiance to al Qaeda, had already made several attempts to reach certain areas of tension notably in Chechnya and Iraq before deciding to carry out a terrorist act inside Morocco, the Interior Ministry added.
After learning how to make explosives on the Internet, the statement pointed out, he has developed two remote controlled explosive devices that he brought to Marrakech.
He entered disguising as a tourist at the café of Argana, a site visited by several Moroccan and foreign tourists, the same source said.
The preliminary investigations undertaken by the security services have uncovered the remains of explosives and some tools that were rid of after committing the terrorist act, it underlined.
The suspects will be brought to justice after the completion of the ongoing investigation, under the supervision of the competent public prosecutor, the statement concluded.
A security official told AFP news agency that the three suspects were arrested in the town of Safi, 350km south of Casablanca.
It was the first such attack in Morocco since 2003, when suicide bombings in Casablanca, killed at least 45 people.