Morocco holds 13 suspected Jihadist group members

RABAT, Nov 15 (Reuters) Moroccan security forces have arrested 13 people suspected of belonging to a Jihadist group which has threatened to kill top government figures, officials said today.

Morocco has been on alert since 2003 when suicide attacks killed 45 people in Casablanca, the country's commercial capital.

More than 3,200 people have been arrested since then on suspicion of terrorist activity. Many have been released but hundreds have been jailed after trials.

Officials said the 13 people arrested are suspected of being members of Jamaat Attawhid wal Jihad.

The suspects were questioned by police before further investigation by a court magistrate and trial, they added.

Statements on the Internet issued in the name of the group in the past year have identified reform-minded King Mohammed and ''his infidel government'' as targets.

''We in Jamaat Attawhid wal Jihad in Morocco are declaring a merciless and destructive war against infidels and apostates in this country to clean it of their corruption and oppression,'' it said in one of the statements.

A letter purportedly from the group was also sent to al Attihad al Ichtiraqi newspaper, mouthpiece of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP), in which it threatened to kill top party leaders, including Finance and Privatisation Minister Fathallah Oualalou.

USFP is the main party in the coalition government headed by Prime Minister Driss Jettou.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, was headed: ''Be ready to count your deaths''.

The Casablanca-based Attawhid is the second Jihadist group to be broken up by security forces in Morocco since they dismantled in August Ansar el Mehdi, which vowed to turn the moderate Muslim kingdom into a purist Islamic state.

The 56 Mehdi members are still in custody awaiting trial. El Mehdi group had cells in Casablanca and four other cities in Morocco, officials said.

REUTERS PB PM1621