RABAT, Morocco (AP) - Moroccan police have dismantled a terrorist network, arresting 17 people, including two former prisoners at the U.S. base in Guantanamo, Cuba, the official MAP news agency reported Sunday. At least some of the suspects were linked to al-Qaida in Iraq.Brahim Benchekroun and Mohammed Mazouz - among five Moroccans freed from Guantanamo in August 2004 - were among the suspects. They were arrested Nov. 11 at their homes in connection with a probe into al-Qaida, a Moroccan security official said, among 17 implicated in the network.
Information about the network, dismantled before it was fully structured, remained sketchy, and it was unclear when the other arrests were made. The top two suspects, Khaled Azig and Mohamed Rha, were recruiting extremists for their cause, MAP quoted police as saying. Members of the network had links with small groups on the Iraqi border and close ties to leading members of the al-Qaida terror network, MAP reported. Benchekroun and Mazouz were arrested in Pakistan and Afghanistan in late 2001 and among five Moroccans accused of taking training courses in how to handle firearms and make explosives.