- Sputnik International
Africa
Get the latest Africa news from Sputnik: breaking news, photos, videos, analysis, and features.

Scandinavian Women Killed by 'Hastily Organised Terrorist Cell' – Moroccan Intel

© AFP 2023 / FADEL SENNAThis picture taken on December 21, 2018 shows a combo photo murdered Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen (L) and Nowegian Maren Ueland placed on top of flowers and between the flags of Morocco an Norway as Moroccans pay tribute to the Scandinavian victims
This picture taken on December 21, 2018 shows a combo photo murdered Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen (L) and Nowegian Maren Ueland placed on top of flowers and between the flags of Morocco an Norway as Moroccans pay tribute to the Scandinavian victims - Sputnik International
Subscribe
Earlier, a tremendously graphic video of a beheading of one of the girls made headlines and was reportedly sent to the victim’s mother.

A Moroccan government spokesman has confirmed the police have arrested six more people over the past couple of days in connection with the horrific murder of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, aged 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, of Norway, in the Moroccan mountains, thus bringing the total number of nabbed suspects to 19.

In this photo provided by Moroccan news channel 2M and taken on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018, a security team is seen at the area where the bodies of two Scandinavian women tourists were found dead, near Imlil in the High Atlas mountains, Morocco - Sputnik International
Gang Killed Scandinavian Women in Morocco After 2 Days of Hunting for Targets

Domestic intelligence spokesman Boubker Sabik referred to the suspects as a “lone wolf, hastily organised terrorist cell” when speaking at a press-conference in the country’s capital city of Rabat. He went on to state that the hair-raising crime “was not co-ordinated with Islamic State”, thereby questioning earlier reports that the killers had pledged allegiance to Daesh* after stabbing the two women multiple times, injuring the neck of one and filming the beheading of the other one.

It has also been revealed that the victims were “happy and sociable” just days before the tragedy, according to Rachid Imerhade, a mountain guide who had earlier met the two friends.

“They were smiling, chatty and sociable. They talked a lot with the other people around”, he was cited by media as saying.

Sabik noted that the group has recruited up to fifteen other members and pledged loyalty to Daesh, but the authorities believe no prior contact with the notorious terrorist organisation had been established.

A woman wearing a hijab - Sputnik International
German Daesh Bride Charged Over Death of 'Slave' Kept in Iraq - Reports

“The emir of the group” — military leader — was Abdessamad Ejjoud, a 25-year-old street vendor living near Marrakesh, the others were acting on his command, according to Sabik, who told AFP that Ejjoud had “formed a kind of cell that discussed how to carry out a terrorist act inside the kingdom”.

The killers travelled to the mountainous Imlil region due to the fact that it is “frequented by foreigners” and “targeted the two tourists in a deserted area”, Sabik concluded.

Among the other suspects are a plumber, a carpenter and a second street vendor, and according to the Moroccan intelligence none of these had earlier contacted Daesh.

READ MORE: Denmark Says Video of Two Scandinavian Women Butchered by 'Daesh' Is Authentic

The pair had set up camp at an isolated mountain site around two hours from the tourist village of Imlil when they were attacked, with their disfigured bodies found at a distance from each other in the morning of December 17.

A candlelight vigil in memory of Louisa and Maren in Town Hall Square in Copenhagen was held yesterday and one in Rabat, Morocco earlier this week. 

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia
Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала