Morocco busts cell recruiting fighters for Iraq

Rabat: Moroccan security forces have dismantled a radical cell recruiting volunteers to fight in Iraq and arrested 26 people, the government said on Thursday.

"The first elements of the inquiry reveal the existence of ideological links with and financial and logistical support for international terrorist groups," it said in a statement.

Those groups included Al Qaida, the Algeria-based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) and other international terrorist organisations, it added. All those arrested were Moroccan.

The latest group's links with the GSPC could also alarm anti-terrorism officials already concerned that the GSPC is drawing in growing numbers of radicals in the region and providing them with weapons and military training.