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Morocco to do away with compulsory army service

Morocco is to scrap compulsory military service in a move analysts said on Thursday was aimed at blocking infiltration of the military by Islamists hatching an anti-monarchist plot.

  • Reuters
  • Published: 00:00 December 2, 2006
  • Gulf News

Rabat : Morocco is to scrap compulsory military service in a move analysts said on Thursday was aimed at blocking infiltration of the military by Islamists hatching an anti-monarchist plot.

Morocco has been on alert over religious hardliners since 2003 when suicide bombings killed 45 people in Casablanca. Analysts said the security concerns had deepened since the discovery in August of a group, Ansar Al Mehdi (Mehdi Partisans), accused by government of planning to launch a holy war to establish a caliphate Islamic state.

The group infiltrated the army and police to recruit at least nine of their members.

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