Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
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The Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain, or GICM) is an extremist Islamic fundamentalist group operating in North Africa and suspected of having links with al-Qaida. Its goals reportedly include establishing an Islamic state in Morocco. The group emerged in the late 1990s, apparently drawing on Moroccan jihadists who had fought or trained in Afghanistan. It was named as a terrorist organisation by the United States Department of State in December 2002. [1]
The GICM has been associated with major militant attacks. In 2003, an attack in Casablanca killed 30 people. In 2004, an attack on the public transportation system in Madrid killed 191 and wounded more than 1900. Salafia Jihadia, an offshoot of the GICM, is blamed for both. It was named by Spanish interior minister Angel Acebes as the "priority" for investigations into the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks, although he insisted that the possible involvement of other militant organisations had not been ruled out.
On October 10, 2005, Britain's Home Office banned GICM and 14 other groups from operating in the United Kingdom. Under Britain's Terrorism Act 2000, being a member of a GICM is punished by a 10-year prison term.
The fourteen banned militant groups were:
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- Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
- Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain
- Ansar al-Islam
- Al Ittihadia Al Islamia
- Islamic Jihad Union
- Ansar al-Sunna
- Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin
- Harakat ul-Mujahidin/Alami
- Jundallah
- Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
- Lashkar-e Jhangvi
- Khuddam u-Islam
- Jamaat ul Furquan
- Harakat ul Jihad ul Islami
- Harakat ul Islami (Bangladesh)
