LONDON: Nine more people have been arrested in Morocco for connections to the four initial suspects in the killing of two Scandinavian university students in a remote corner of the Atlas Mountains, Moroccan authorities said Friday.
A total of 13 men have been detained after the murder of the female hikers from Denmark and Norway.
Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial investigations said the nine new suspects had been carrying arms and “suspicious materials” used in the manufacture of explosives at the time of their arrests.
It said electronic devices, an unauthorized hunting rifles, knives and materials that could be used for bomb-making were found in the course of the raids. No further details were available.
The bodies of the two young Scandinavian hikers murdered by suspected extremists in the High Atlas mountains in Morocco were flown to Copenhagen on Friday, a police source said.
The remains of Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and 28-year-old Maren Ueland from Norway were put on the same plane that left Casablanca for the Danish capital, a police spokesman said.
Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) has been investigating the footage circulating on social media.
Moroccan authorities said Thursday that four suspects arrested following the murder of the two tourists had pledged allegiance to Daesh, but Norway’s National Crime Investigation Service (NCIS) said that “neither Norway nor Denmark was mentioned in the video, nor was there anything specific about what action they should perform.”
The bodies of the two women were found on Monday, after they had pitched their tent at an isolated mountain site two hours walk from the tourist village of Imlil.
Authorities in Morocco consider the killings a terrorist act. The women’s bodies were discovered Monday with stab wounds in their necks.
Norway’s news agency NTB said Ueland’s autopsy would be performed in Norway.
The NCIS said it was trying to map the women’s activities before their departure for Imlil, a frequent starting point for treks to Mount Toubkal, North Africa’s highest peak. The women were found 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the village.
Norwegian police said on Friday that a video purportedly showing the killings of the two women in Morocco by suspected Daesh militants is probably authentic.
Moroccan authorities have said four suspects arrested over the murder had pledged allegiance to Daesh in a video posted on social media before the killings. The women were found with knife wounds to the neck, Morocco said.
A separate video of the actual deaths, also on social media, was likely to be real, Norwegian police said.
“When it comes to the assessment of the video that purportedly shows the killings, there is still a certain amount of technical analysis and assessment to be done,” NCIS said in a statement.
“We still believe, however, that we have grounds to say that so far, there is nothing concrete to show that this video is not real.”
Norwegian police were not immediately available for further comment, while their Danish counterparts said they were still analizing the video and the Moroccan authorities said on Thursday they working on authenticating it.
Later on Friday, Norwegians planned to march with torches through Bryne, the coastal hometown of Maren Ueland, to express solidarity with her family.
On Saturday, a gathering will be held outside the Norwegian Embassy in the Moroccan capital Rabat in support of the families of the victims and to condemn terrorism. Thousands of people have said on Facebook that they would attend.
Both women had lived in southern Norway, where they attended university.
Morocco is generally considered safe for tourists but it has been routing out extremist militants for years.
Compared to other countries in North Africa, Morocco has been largely insulated from militant attacks.
The most recent took place in April 2011, when 17 people were killed in the bombing of a restaurant in Marrakech.
