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Although the four main suspects filmed a video in which they pledged allegiance to ISIS one week before the horrible Imlil murders, the terrorist organization has not claimed responsibility for the terror attack.
In an interview conducted on December the 24th, 2018, head of Morocco's central office for judicial investigation (BCIJ) Abdelhak Khiam said that the four suspects, arrested days after the tragedy in Marrakech, have not been in contact with the terrorist organization in Iraq, Syria and Libya.
The same information was confirmed by the spokesman for the Moroccan security and domestic intelligence services Boubker Sabik who stated that «the crime was not coordinated with the Islamic state». The official has even described the suspects as «lone wolves» who «acted on their own».
Meanwhile, French researcher and Islamic issues consultant Romain Caillet said that «two weeks after uploading the allegiance video to internet, the terrorist organization did not respond to that».
An amateurish terror act
On his Twitter account, Caillet indicated that «this is the first time that terrorists pledge allegiance to ISIS through a video and that the organization do not claim responsibility for their attack».
The researcher explained that up till now ISIS «had systematically claimed responsibility for all attacks, including the cruelest ones, like the murder of Father Jacque Hamel».
Interviewed by French daily La Croix, Romain Caillet pointed out that the attack that took place in Imlil was not well prepared and that alleged assailants have just seized an opportunity that presented itself.
The same idea was made public by Thomas Hegghammer, a senior official at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishement, who told NRK that the Imlil killings looked «amateurish».
Quoted by Aljazeera, Hegghammer said that «everything about this case seems improvised and opportunistic», adding : «I don’t think this is ordered from Daesh (ISIS) leadership (…) this looks more like an initiative from Daesh sympathizers in Morocco».
On December the 17th, Louisa and Maren, two Scandinavian backpackers who arrived in Morocco for a month-long Christmas holiday, were found dead in their tent near Imlil, a starting point for a for climbing Mount Toubkal.
18 people were arrested since then, including a Swiss-Spanish national who has been living in Morocco since 2015.
