Militant linked to French plot held in Morocco

RABAT: A suspected Daesh terrorist who delivered instructions to a cell planning to carry out an attack in France has been arrested in Morocco, authorities said on Saturday.
The suspect was linked with a French Daesh cell that had planned to attack Paris on Thursday but was broken up by French authorities in November, the Moroccan Interior Ministry said.
The suspect had met Daesh operatives on the Syrian-Turkish border and received instructions to be delivered to the cell in France, it charged.
The orders came from the militant group in territory it controls in Syria and Iraq.
French security services broke up the cell by arresting seven men in Strasbourg and Marseille on Nov. 19 and 20, according to the French Interior Ministry.
The public prosecutor for Paris later said the men had been in contact with a commander in Iraq or Syria.
A year ago, Moroccan intelligence helped put French investigators on the trail of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin who had appeared in grisly Daesh videos and was linked to a series of plots in Europe.
A study by the US-based Soufan Group said last December that at least 1,200 Moroccans had traveled to fight alongside Daesh in Iraq and Syria in the previous 18 months.
Morocco has also arrested eight men with alleged ties to Daesh active in the cities of Fez and Tangiers, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.