CIAO DATE: 09/04

In the Spotlight: Moroccan Combatant Group (GICM)

Benjamin Keating

Center for Defense Information

May 2004

On March 11, 2004, Spain experienced the largest terrorist attack against a Western country since the attacks on America of Sept. 11, 2001. More than 200 people were killed, and 1,500 injured when 10 bombs ripped through metro trains during the height of Madrid’s rush hour. The Spanish government immediately blamed the separatist group Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA); however, subsequent investigations have led to the belief that the bombings were carried out not by ETA but by the Moroccan Combatant Group (GICM from its French acronym) — the terrorist organization believed to be behind attacks in Morocco a year earlier.

In May 16, 2003, five simultaneous bombs hit Casablanca, killing 45, including 12 bombers. The GICM was blamed for the attacks. Yet this group is still very much a mystery to both the public and investigators. There is no definitive answer about who the group’s leader is, and a string of arrests spanning Europe has led more to conjecture that this GICM may be a pseudonym for a larger web of terrorists with links to al Qaeda and the international jihadist movement.

The United States Department of State “Patterns of Global Terror” report states that GICM emerged in the late 1990s, however it is speculated that its founding dates back to the early 1990s, when it was formed by veteran mujahadeen of the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Morocco first experienced Islamic radicalism in 1969 with the birth of the Shabiba Islamiya. This organization split into two factions, and one of the groups that emerged came to be known as the Moroccan Combatant Group (GICM). They are believed to operate in the UK, Denmark, Belgium, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Spain and France, and to deal in the trafficking of falsified documents and arms smuggling. The U.S. State Department lists the organization’s goals as: the creation of an Islamic State, followed by supporting al Qaeda’s war against the West. Consequently, the U.S. has frozen the organizations assets under EO 13224.

The GICM gained public notoriety in 2003 with the bombing of Casablanca. Soon after the attack and a number of arrests, four accused were given the death sentence, and 39 others long-term sentences. Mohamed Fizazi, who was given 30 years in prison, is believed linked to both the Madrid bombing, and al Qaeda. Fizazi preached at the same al-Qods mosque that the Sept. 11 hijackers’ leader Mohamed Atta attended while studying in Germany. He was preaching in Tangiers until his arrest in–conjunction to the Casablanca bombing. It was here where he caught the ear of Jamal Zougam, who is now a prime suspect in the Madrid case. As the unfolding Madrid bombing investigation shows, Fizazi’s ties (and those of others) to al Qaeda indicate that GICM is part of a larger, overlapping Islamic movement.

Madrid may appear an unorthodox location to bomb if one’s ambitions are a Moroccan Islamic State. Yet, GICM is now believed to be behind the attacks that occurred in the Spanish capital on March 11, 2003. Zougam was arrested almost immediately after the bombing when police recovered part of a cell-phone’s SIM card which they were able to trace to the phone shop he owned. His arrest is adding to investigators' understanding of the extent to which GICM has infiltrated Europe and the group’s connections to al Qaeda. Zougam had lived in Spain since he was 10 years old, and later traveled outside the country — apparently on business related to his phone shop. These trips would often take him to Tangiers where investigators suspect the roots of the Madrid attack lie. Here Zougam was believed to have come into contact with Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas (known as Abu Dahdah) — arrested in Spain in connection with the September 11 bombing.

Zougman also is reported to have met with Abdelaziz Benyaich in April 2003. Although not believed to be associated with the Madrid bombings, Benyaich had been working with Islamic militants in northern Morocco, and was arrested in Spain soon after the Casablanca attacks. An investigation found that Benyaich had been involved in testing cell phone devices that could set off bombs similar to the ones used in Madrid. He has also been linked with Abu Musab Zarqawi — a suspected leader of the Iraqi insurgency who is also believed to have carried out the on–camera beheading of American Nick Berg —ĘZougram and Benyaich.

Ongoing investigations continue to shed light on the structure of GICM. Spainish authorities arrested 16 suspects, 11 of them Moroccan, in connection with the March 13 bombing. Then on April 3, 2004, suspected terrorists blew themselves up after being cornered by police in a flat in the Madrid suburb of Leganes. Among the remains later identified were those of the alleged leader of the March 11 attacks — Serhane Abdelmajid Fakhet, a Tunisian. Just two days after Fakhet and others blew themselves up; French authorities detained 13 suspected militants in a dawn raid stemming from the attack in Casablanca one year earlier.

Until recently, Mohamed Guerbouzi was thought by Moroccan authorities to be the head of the GICM — but this point is still debatable. Currently, Guerbouzi lives in England, but is being extradited by Morocco to serve twenty years in prison. Confessions from Noureddine Nfia, who was convicted and sentenced to 20 years for his role in the Casablanca attack, reportedly implicate Taeb Bentizi as the GICM’s leader. Mohamed Guerbouzi is alleged to be his deputy. A report compiled from Nfia’s confession also claims that GICM has sleeper cells in Britain, Belgium, France, Italy and Canada.

Sources:

“Fighting Back; The hunt for terrorists in Spain and France,” The Economist, April 7, 2004.

“Group linked to Madrid has sleeping cells in Europe, Canada,” EU Business, April 16, 2004.

“Madrid Massacre Leader Named,” CBS News, April 1, 2004.

Ciaran Giles, “Spain Makes New Arrest in Madrid Bombings,” Guardian, April 5, 2004.

Ilhem Rachidi, “Morocco struggles with Wahhabi legacy,” Asia Times, 2004.

Mark Townsend, John Hooper, Greg Bearup, Paul Harris, Peter Beaumont, Antony Barnett, Martin Bright, Jason Burke, Nick Pelham, “The Secret War,” The Guardian, March 21, 2004.

Mohamed Darif, “The Moroccan Combatant Group (ARI),” Analisis Del Real Instituto, March 30, 2004.

Peter Finn, Keith B. Richburg, “Madrid Probe Turns to Islamic Cell in Morocco,” Washington Post, March 20, 2004.

United States Department of State, “Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003 Report.”