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Gruesome Beheading Footage Circulates After Two Female Backpackers Found Brutally Murdered During Hiking Trip

Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Maren Ueland, both Scandinavian students, were found dead in Morocco's Atlas Mountains. The four suspects arrested may have ties to ISIS.

Two Scandinavian women were found brutally murdered during a hiking trip through Morocco's Atlas Mountains and authorities are investigating it as a possible act of terrorism after a graphic video surfaced on social media appearing to show one of the victims being beheaded.

Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and Maren Ueland, 28, had been camping in the Atlas Mountains as part of a month-long trek through Morocco when they were killed. Jespersen was from Denmark and Ueland from Norway, but the pair had been attending college together.

Their bodies were discovered Monday by French hikers, who reported one of the women was found inside a tent while the other was found just outside it. One of the bodies had been beheaded while the other had a deep wound to the neck.

"It was horrible. They were broken," one of the hikers who discovered the bodies said, according to  news.com.au . "We warned everyone we saw in Imlil not to go up there. I did not want more to see what we had seen. ... It was a big shock, we're thinking about it all day."

After arresting one suspect Tuesday, three more were detained Thursday in Marrakech. Moroccan authorities said the four men pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a video that was circulating on Twitter.

In the video, a woman with blonde hair can be seen screaming while a man cuts her neck with a knife.

"This is for Syria, here are the heads of your gods,” a man in the video said in French, according to news.com.au.

Someone can also be heard saying "this is in revenge for our brothers in Hajin," the BBC reports. Hajin is in Syria and was an urban Islamic State stronghold before it was seized by U.S. forces earlier this week .

Denmark's PET intelligence agency said it is working to investigate the footage and "can't say anything at this point about the video's authenticity.” But it did say in a statement to the Associated Press that preliminary findings of the investigation "indicate, according to Moroccan authorities, that the killings may be related to the terrorist organization the Islamic State group."

The killings were "politically motivated and thus an act of terror," Denmark Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said, without identifying the potential motives. "There are still dark forces that want to fight our values" and "we must not give in."

In neighboring Norway, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said terrorism "is not the only lead that is being investigated in Morocco," but the case "emphasizes the importance of combating violent extremism."

Just before the killings, a hotelier in Morocco reported that three men who appeared to be "homeless" were seen near the girl's campsite.

"Three homeless men came from Marrakech and pitched a tent right next to the girls' tent. The men were not from around here," the hotelier said, according to news.au.com.

Both women were attending the University of South-Eastern Norway and had been working on earning a bachelor's degree in outdoor life, culture and ecophilosophy.

"What we know is that they were on a monthlong, private holiday in Morocco. Our thoughts go to the families," the university wrote on its homepage.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Photo Credits: Facebook , Facebook ]

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Family urges public not to watch Scandinavian tourist decapitation video posted by Morocco 'terrorists'

The mutilated bodies of university students Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, left, of Denmark and 28-year-old Maren Ueland of Norway were found on Monday.

WARNING: Disturbing content:

Uncensored images of the severed and partially severed heads of two Scandinavian tourists murdered in the Moroccan mountains have been plastered all over the Facebook page of one of their grieving mothers.

It is not clear if the images were taken by investigators or the killers but the horror development came after friends and family urged people not to watch a video showing the decapitation of one of the victims currently circulating online.

The mutilated bodies of university students Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, of Denmark and 28-year-old Maren Ueland of Norway were found on Monday at an isolated campsite two hours' walk from the tourist village of Imlil near Mount Toubkal.

A graphic video purportedly showing Ms Jespersen's throat being slit, which was viewed this morning by news.com.au, is still being widely shared on numerous social media platforms despite pleas for the footage to be removed.

In the video, two male voices can be heard shouting at the women in Darija (Moroccan Arabic) as one of the killers is seen sawing at Ms Jespersen's neck with a large knife.

According to Darija-speaking journalists at the Morocco World News, one of the perpetrators declares: "This is a revenge for our brothers in Hajin" — referring to the small Syrian town which was an ISIS stronghold until it was liberated two weeks ago by Syrian Democratic Forces.

Earlier, several major news outlets — including The Guardian, the BBC and AFP — reported the video had been verified by the Danish intelligence service.

But the Danish Security and Intelligence Service has since issued a statement denying the claim, saying its specialists were still working on the footage.

"The police and the intelligence agency are still analysing the video, so we cannot at this time say anything about the authenticity of the video," it said.

Friends of Ms Jespersen's family have been pleading with social media users not to watch the footage, which is still — incredibly — available on Twitter, Facebook, 4Chan and Reddit.

In a shocking development, the Facebook page of Ms Ueland's mother Irene has been spammed with hundreds horrible images of her daughter's slit throat and Ms Jespersen's severed head.

Some appear to have been posted by local Moroccans in a bizarre attempt to express condolences, with the distressing images captioned with calls for the killers to be put to death.

'I was so lucky to be your boyfriend'

The former boyfriend of Louisa Jespersen has written an eloquent and utterly heartbreaking tribute to the woman he dated for two years.

Glen Martin, who stayed close friends with Ms Jespersen even after they broke up several months ago, described her as a force of nature who refused to be "limited by fear of all the dangers of the world".

"Dear Amazing Lulu,

Funny, full of energy, bundle of joy, inclusive, caring and thoughtful. These were just a few of your many amazing qualities. You were also well known to be distracted, slow and clumsy. These qualities that made so many of us to scratch our head, but it was just these that made you unique and loved.

"You were so curious and everything fascinated you. No idea how many times we were hiking together where I turn around and you were disappeared, because so to find you far behind me because you had to look closer to a beautiful flower, view or something that the average person wouldn't notice even. You saw beauty in every smallest detail.

Mr Martin's tribute continued:

"Louisa, I was so lucky to be your boyfriend for two years until this summer. We went apart as best friends with tears in our eyes because we found out that we didn't love each other anymore. We both were very sorry, but agreed that it was the way it was.

"It breaks my heart that there is someone who would hurt you, you always saw the very best in people and you brought out the best in the people around you. You travelled around the world just as you would, you would not be limited by fear of all the dangers of the world. You did what you wanted and you were tough.

"You will live on in the heart of all the people you have met through the journey of your life. I carry you with me the rest of the way and take you up on the mountains and down the rivers you never had the opportunity to experience.

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle" You were that single candle Louisa. Jeg har vært veldig... Posted by Glen Martin on  Wednesday, 19 December 2018

"You have a special place in my heart and it is reserved for you the rest of my hopefully long life. To make room for you in my heart, I also had to give you a part of mine. So a part of me died Monday morning, but it also means that part of me is with you wherever you are now. No matter how lonely you are, I'll be there with your side and you with mine. I wish you good luck in your journey further wherever it takes you.

"I don't say goodbye, but at reunion my friend."

Second video allegedly shows suspects backing ISIS

A total of four men are now in custody over the grisly killing of the two hikers as Moroccan and Danish authorities probe a link to Islamic extremism.

Morocco's Central Bureau of Judicial Intelligence (BCIJ) today released the names of three of the suspects, all of whom hail from "marginal neighbourhoods" around Marrakech.

They were named as:

*Rachid Afatti, a 32-year-old small businessman from Al Kayed, a village in rural Harbil, 30km outside Marrakech;

*Ouziad Younes, a 27-year-old carpenter from the Marrakech suburb of Al Azzouzia;

*Ejjoud Abdessamad, 25, from the Zeroual district of Marrakech.

Police have not released details of the fourth man arrested yesterday after police seized a cache of knives found on a bus in Marrakech.

A video showing all four men pledging their allegiance to so-called ISIS leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, has been authenticated by investigators and gives weight to suspicions Ms Jespersen and Ms Ueland were killed in an act of terrorism.

The footage, recorded a week before the murders, shows the men sitting in front of a black and white flag. One, brandishing a knife, declares the group's intention to carry out terrorist acts.

He condemns "destruction caused by the warplanes of the Crusader alliance" and appears to taunt Morocco's intelligence service, saying "where is your knowledge? For here we are …"

Confirming its authenticity, the Rabat prosecutor issued a statement saying: "The video showing the arrested individuals … pledging allegiance to Daesh was recorded last week before the execution of the criminal acts we are investigating."

The killings have sparked fears of a hit to Morocco's crucial tourist sector as the kingdom's relative security has always been a major selling point.

"What most of us had feared — that is to say a terrorist angle to the double crime in the region of Imlil, has been confirmed," said leading news website Medias 24.

"Shock, sadness and revulsion are perceptible in Morocco."

Traumatised by the murders, residents of Imlil are deeply fearful for their livelihoods, and have helped investigators in identifying suspects, a tourism sector source told AFP.

Morocco has been spared jihadist attacks since 2011, when a bomb attack on a cafe in Marrakesh's famed Jamaa El Fna Square killed 17 people, most of them European tourists.

An attack in the North African state's financial capital Casablanca killed 33 people in 2003.

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Video of Tourist’s Killing in Morocco Is Most Likely Real, Norway Says

By Henrik Pryser Libell Martin Selsoe Sorensen and Aida Alami

• Dec. 22, 2018

OSLO, Norway — The Norwegian police have concluded that footage showing the brutal killing of a Scandinavian tourist in Morocco by suspects who also filmed themselves pledging allegiance to the Islamic State is most likely authentic.

Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service, known as Kripos, said in a statement on Friday , “There is no concrete evidence indicating the video is not real.”

It came as the Moroccan authorities announced the arrests of nine more people in connection with the killing of the university students Maren Ueland, 28, of Norway and Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, of Denmark, in a remote corner of the Atlas Mountains. Morocco considers the killings a terrorist act.

Thirteen men in all have been detained in the case. Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations said the nine new suspects had been arrested in the regions of Marrakesh, Essaouira, Sidi Bennour, Tangier and Chtouka Ait Baha. They were carrying arms and “suspicious materials” used in the manufacture of explosives at the time of their arrests. No further details were released.

Ms. Jespersen and Ms. Ueland were attacked after setting out for a hike. Their bodies were found on Monday with stab wounds in their necks. Both women had been studying in Norway to become tour guides.

On Friday, a plane took their bodies from Casablanca to Denmark. The Norwegian news agency NTB said Ms. Ueland’s autopsy would be performed in her home country.

In the video of the killing posted on social media, one of the victims is shown screaming while a man cuts her neck with a knife. Kripos said in its statement that “some work remains on technical analysis and assessment” of the footage, and that the Norwegian police were working “closely with Danish police” on the case.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway called the killings “a senseless attack,” and Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen of Denmark said on Thursday that the killings might be “politically motivated, and thereby an act of terror.”

Four of the suspects had recorded another video one week before the killings in which they pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, according to Morocco’s general prosecutor.

That video, which was shared on Twitter, showed the men vowing fealty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and saying that they “cannot remain seated, witnessing the destruction caused by Crusader planes,” terminology typically used by the terrorist group to refer to Western airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.

Kripos said that “neither Norway nor Denmark was mentioned in the video, nor was there anything specific about what action they should perform.”

Investigators recovered surveillance footage showing three of the men putting up a tent near the victims’ tent in an isolated area of the High Atlas Mountains, an area popular with hikers. The same men are seen leaving the area after their deaths, according to Moroccan news reports.

The Norwegian authorities said they were trying to trace the women’s activities before their departure for the village of Imlil. The women were found about six miles from the village.

Morocco is generally considered safe for tourists but it has battled to rid some areas of Islamic extremists for years.

In Norway, more than 400 people in the small town of Bryne held a parade and carried torches in remembrance of Ms. Ueland. On Facebook, Ms. Jespersen’s friends and relatives said they had received tens of thousands of messages from strangers expressing their grief, many apparently from Moroccans expressing shock and offering apologies.

But some friends and relatives of the victims said they were also being sent the video of what the authorities believe to be the killing of one of the women.

“We’ve been bombarded by many strange people,” Helle Jespersen, Ms. Jespersen’s mother, told a Danish newspaper . “Some were good — but others wrote that my daughter deserved to be dead.”

Moroccans are also trying to stop people from spreading the video online. It is illegal in the country to publish or spread material that promotes terrorist activities.

A Danish scholar on Islamic militants, Tore Refslund Hamming, said he had been approached by a person he believed to be American with a “fairly senior” position within the Islamic State who offered to share the suspects’ allegiance video online.

“He asked if I wanted the video in advance and participate in hyping the video by sharing and liking it,” said Mr. Hamming, a doctoral student with the European University Institute in Florence.

He said he declined, but that the video of the killing started spreading online half an hour later.

A Danish Facebook manager, Martin Ruby, told Danish news outlets that the social media giant was helping the police to pull down the video “as quickly as we can.”

“We do not allow content on our platforms to glorify or encourage terrorism or mass murder,” Mr. Ruby was quoted as saying by the news site DR .

Henrik Pryser Libell reported from Oslo, Norway, Martin Selsoe Sorensen from Copenhagen and Aida Alami from Paris. Rukmini Callimachi contributed reporting from New York.

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Warning: Distressing content

Uncensored images of the severed and partially severed heads of two Scandinavian tourists murdered in the Moroccan mountains have been plastered all over the Facebook page of one of their grieving mothers.

It is not clear if the images were taken by investigators or the killers but the horror development came after friends and family urged people not to watch a video showing the decapitation of one of the victims circulating online.

The mutilated bodies of university students Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, of Denmark, and 28-year-old Maren Ueland, of Norway, were found on Monday at an isolated campsite two hours’ walk from the tourist village of Imlil near Mount Toubkal.

Moroccan authorities believe four suspects in the killings had travelled to the Atlas Mountains intent on committing a crime, but had not selected a target in advance.

They were apparently acting on their own initiative, even though they had just pledged allegiance to Islamic State, an official said on Sunday.

Boubker Sabik, spokesman for the Moroccan security and domestic intelligence services, also said the arrest of nine more people in the case had foiled a terror plot.

A graphic video purportedly showing Ms Jespersen’s throat being slit, which was viewed this morning by news.com.au, is still being widely shared on numerous social media platforms despite pleas for the footage to be removed.

Please don't watch the #Morocco video. You know what's going to be on it, you know what you'll see. Someone's precious daughters in their final moments, horrifically robbed of their lives. Don't give the monsters the satisfaction. You can give these beautiful girls their dignity — Vanessa Bailey (@vbaileyactor) December 20, 2018

So heartbroken and terrible what happened in Morocco with those beautiful girls ; Rest in peace Maren Ueland and Louisa Vesterager Jespersen Warning if you come across the video please do not watch it for the sake of your own mental & emotional health. pic.twitter.com/g5ePHZmvnf — Ornella ♡. (@hsftangel) December 20, 2018

In the video, two male voices can be heard shouting at the women in Darija (Moroccan Arabic) as one of the killers is seen sawing at Ms Jespersen’s neck with a large knife.

According to Darija-speaking journalists at the Morocco World News , one of the perpetrators declares: “This is a revenge for our brothers in Hajin” — referring to the small Syrian town which was an ISIS stronghold until it was liberated two weeks ago by Syrian Democratic Forces.

Earlier, several major news outlets — including The Guardian , the BBC and AFP — reported the video had been verified by the Danish authorities.

But the Danish Security and Intelligence Service has since issued a statement denying the claim, saying its specialists were still working on the footage.

“The police and the intelligence agency are still analysing the video, so we cannot at this time say anything about the authenticity of the video,” it said.

Friends of Ms Jespersen’s family have been pleading with social media users not to watch the footage, which is still — incredibly — available on Twitter, Facebook, 4Chan and Reddit.

In a shocking development, the Facebook page of Ms Ueland’s mother Irene has been spammed with hundreds horrible images of her daughter’s slit throat and Ms Jespersen’s severed head.

Some appear to have been posted by local Moroccans in a bizarre attempt to express condolences, with the distressing images captioned with calls for the killers to be put to death.

“I was so lucky to be your boyfriend”

The former boyfriend of Louisa Jespersen has written an eloquent and utterly heartbreaking tribute to the woman he dated for two years.

Glen Martin, who stayed close friends with Ms Jespersen even after they broke up several months ago, described her as a force of nature who refused to be “limited by fear of all the dangers of the world”.

“Dear Amazing Lulu,

Funny, full of energy, bundle of joy, inclusive, caring and thoughtful. These were just a few of your many amazing qualities. You were also well known to be distracted, slow and clumsy. These qualities that made so many of us to scratch our head, but it was just these that made you unique and loved.

“You were so curious and everything fascinated you. No idea how many times we were hiking together where I turn around and you were disappeared, because so to find you far behind me because you had to look closer to a beautiful flower, view or something that the average person wouldn’t notice even. You saw beauty in every smallest detail.

Mr Martin’s tribute continued:

“Louisa, I was so lucky to be your boyfriend for two years until this summer. We went apart as best friends with tears in our eyes because we found out that we didn’t love each other anymore. We both were very sorry, but agreed that it was the way it was.

“It breaks my heart that there is someone who would hurt you, you always saw the very best in people and you brought out the best in the people around you. You travelled around the world just as you would, you would not be limited by fear of all the dangers of the world. You did what you wanted and you were tough.

“You will live on in the heart of all the people you have met through the journey of your life. I carry you with me the rest of the way and take you up on the mountains and down the rivers you never had the opportunity to experience.

“You have a special place in my heart and it is reserved for you the rest of my hopefully long life. To make room for you in my heart, I also had to give you a part of mine. So a part of me died Monday morning, but it also means that part of me is with you wherever you are now. No matter how lonely you are, I’ll be there with your side and you with mine. I wish you good luck in your journey further wherever it takes you.

I don’t say goodbye, but at reunion my friend.”

Second video allegedly shows suspects backing ISIS

Thirteen people have now been arrested over the grisly killing of the two hikers as Moroccan and Danish authorities probe a link to Islamic extremism.

Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Intelligence (BCIJ) yesterday released the names of three of the suspects, all of whom hail from “marginal neighbourhoods” around Marrakech.

RELATED: Mass arrests in Morocco tourist slayings

They were named as:

●  Rachid Afatti, a 32-year-old small businessman from Al Kayed, a village in rural Harbil, 30km outside Marrakech;

●  Ouziad Younes, a 27-year-old carpenter from the Marrakech suburb of Al Azzouzia;

●  Ejjoud Abdessamad, 25, from the Zeroual district of Marrakech.

Police have not released details of the fourth man arrested yesterday after police seized a cache of knives found on a bus in Marrakech.

A video showing all four men pledging their allegiance to so-called ISIS leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, has been authenticated by investigators and gives weight to suspicions Ms Jespersen and Ms Ueland were killed in an act of terrorism.

The footage, recorded a week before the murders, shows the men sitting in front of a black and white flag. One, brandishing a knife, declares the group’s intention to carry out terrorist acts.

He condemns “destruction caused by the warplanes of the Crusader alliance” and appears to taunt Morocco’s intelligence service, saying “where is your knowledge? For here we are …”

Confirming its authenticity, the Rabat prosecutor issued a statement saying: “The video showing the arrested individuals … pledging allegiance to Daesh was recorded last week before the execution of the criminal acts we are investigating.”

The killings have sparked fears of a hit to Morocco’s crucial tourist sector as the kingdom’s relative security has always been a major selling point.

“What most of us had feared — that is to say a terrorist angle to the double crime in the region of Imlil, has been confirmed,” said leading news website Medias 24.

“Shock, sadness and revulsion are perceptible in Morocco.”

Traumatised by the murders, residents of Imlil are deeply fearful for their livelihoods, and have helped investigators in identifying suspects, a tourism sector source told AFP.

Morocco has been spared jihadist attacks since 2011, when a bomb attack on a cafe in Marrakesh’s famed Jamaa El Fna Square killed 17 people, most of them European tourists.

An attack in the North African state’s financial capital Casablanca killed 33 people in 2003.

Originally published as Family urges public not to watch Scandinavian tourist decapitation video

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An Aussie has been forced to pay for an entire flight’s fuel after his on-board behaviour forced the pilot to turn around and dump its load.

Watch CBS News

Video allegedly shows university students' murders in Morocco

December 21, 2018 / 8:18 AM EST / CBS/AP

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- A video that allegedly shows the killing of two Scandinavian university students in a remote part of Morocco's Atlas Mountains is likely authentic, Norwegian police said Friday. Norway's National Criminal Investigation Service has been investigating the footage circulating on social media. "There is no concrete evidence indicating the video is not real," it said.

Morocco's general prosecutor also confirmed that a video in which the suspects swear allegiance to ISIS and threaten to carry out attacks is authentic, CBS News correspondent Holly Williams reports. Commenting on that video, the NCIS said that "neither Norway nor Denmark was mentioned in the video, nor was there anything specific about what action they should perform."

Four men have been detained in Morocco, and authorities there consider the killings of two female students to be a terrorist act.  The women from Norway and Denmark had been hiking, and two French hikers discovered their bodies discovered Monday with stab wounds in their necks, Williams reports. 

The women have been identified as 24-year-old Louisa Vesterager Jespersen of Denmark and 28-year-old Norwegian citizen Maren Ueland. They lived in southern Norway, where they attended university.

The NCIS said it was trying to map the women's activities before their departure for Imlil village, a frequent starting point for treks to Mount Toubkal, North Africa's highest peak. The women were found about 6.2 miles from the center of the village.

Williams reports that Morocco has experienced very few terror attacks in recent years - but many of its citizens have joined terrorist groups elsewhere, including ISIS. There are now fears that these murders could damage Morocco's crucial tourism industry, which makes up 10 percent of the country's income.

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ISIS brute who beheaded two female Western tourists found dead in his cell

Morocco’s prison service said on Tuesday that Abderrahim Khayali, 36, who was sentenced to death over the 2018 beheadings of two western women, had killed himself

• 15:08, 1 Mar 2023

A brutal ISIS member who was involved in the beheading of two female Western tourists in Morocco has been found dead in his cell.

Morocco’s prison service said on Tuesday that Abderrahim Khayali, 36, who was sentenced to death over the 2018 beheadings, had killed himself.

“This morning, (the prisoner) at Oujda prison committed suicide,” the General Directorate for Prisons said in a statement.

The prison official confirmed that the man who killed himself was Mr Khayali, Agence France Presse reported.

Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, a 24-year-old Danish student, and her friend Maren Ueland, a 28-year-old Norwegian, were brutally killed on December 17, 2018, while camping in the Atlas mountains.

Rachid Afatti, Younes Ouaziyad and the suspected ringleader, Abdessamad Ejjoud carried out the attack while Mr Khayali accompanied three assailants in the horror incident but left the scene before the murders happened.

He still received a life sentence for his involvement and also appeared alongside the killers in a video in which all four pledged allegiance to Daesh .

He was also found guilty of trying to help the men flee.

Jespersen and Ueland's bodies were found by two French walkers near the tourist town of Imlil, where the pair had been holidaying.

An investigation by the Washington Post revealed horrifying details of the attack which happened in the dark, just after midnight.

Mr Ouazid commanded them to come out of their tent and as he reached for the zip he swung his knife at Jespersen’s hand and sliced it.

The investigation continues: "The men stabbed through the tent’s nylon fabric at the panicked figures inside. Jespersen managed to break out of the tent and tried to run, only to be subdued with multiple stab wounds.

"Affati, aiming the camera, pinned her head to the ground with his foot while Ejjoud attacked her with a knife. 'This is the revenge for our brothers in Deir al-Zour,' he said, referring to a province in eastern Syria where the Islamic State had sustained heavy losses.

"The defendants had stabbed them to death in their sleeping bags and then beheaded them."

“My life was destroyed the moment that two policemen came to my door on December 17 to announce my daughter’s death,” the mother of 24-year-old Louisa Vesterager Jespersen wrote in the letter, read out in court in front of the defendants.

Mr Khayali was originally sentenced to life in prison but the sentence was changed to execution after he appealed.

Although the death penalty remains legal in Morocco, there have been no executions there since 1993 because of a moratorium and the issue of capital punishment is a matter of political debate.

MORE ON ISIS Crime Morocco

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Murder video of Scandinavian tourist in Morocco likely authentic: police

Four men have been detained in Morocco in the slayings of two female tourists from Denmark and Norway who were hiking in the Atlas Mountains

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COPENHAGEN — Norwegian police said Friday that a video which allegedly shows the slaying of a Scandinavian university student in a remote part of Morocco’s Atlas Mountains is likely authentic.

Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) has been investigating the footage circulating on social media.

“There is no concrete evidence indicating the video is not real,” it said.

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Four men have been detained in Morocco in the slayings of two female tourists from Denmark and Norway who were hiking in the Atlas Mountains. Authorities in Morocco consider the killings a terrorist act. The women’s bodies were discovered Monday with stab wounds in their necks.

Commenting on another video in which the four suspects appear to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State group, the NCIS said that “neither Norway nor Denmark was mentioned in the video, nor was there anything specific about what action they should perform.”

The victims have been identified as 24-year-old Louisa Vesterager Jespersen of Denmark and 28-year-old Maren Ueland of Norway. They lived in southern Norway, where they attended university.

Moroccan authorities said a plane carrying their caskets took off Friday from Casablanca for Denmark.

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 the village of Imlil, a frequent starting point for treks to Mount Toubkal, North Africa’s highest peak. The women were found 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from the village.

Morocco is generally considered safe for tourists but it has been routing out Islamic extremists for years.

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Denmark authenticates video of murder of Scandinavian in Morocco

Police hunting for more suspects in the murder of Scandinavian women after arresting a man in Marrakech on Tuesday.

Danish intelligence services said they have authenticated a video showing the murder of one of two Scandinavian women in Morocco .

“The PET (intelligence service) confirms that a video circulating on the internet shows the murder of one of the two women killed in Morocco,” the authorities said in a statement on Thursday. 

The video purportedly showed the killing, with a woman screaming while a man cut her neck with what appears to be a kitchen knife.

On Wednesday, prosecutors in Rabat said a man arrested over the killing of the two tourists in the Atlas Mountains belongs to an armed group, without giving the name of the group.

The bodies of the women,  from  Norway  and  Denmark , were found on Monday in an isolated area near Imlil, on the way to Toubkal, North Africa’s highest peak and a popular hiking destination.

The suspect was arrested in Marrakech, Morocco’s tourist hub, on Tuesday and police were hunting other individuals identified as suspects.

“We are working to bring before justice three other suspects on the run,” said police spokesperson Boubker Sabik.

The victims – Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, of Denmark and 28-year-old Maren Ueland of Norway – were killed in an unguarded area in hard-to-reach mountains, he said.

A source from Imlil said one of the victims was found dead inside her tent while another was found outside.

Citing a security source, Morocco’s public TV channel 2M said on its website that investigations showed the slaying of the two tourists was related to armed groups.

Moroccan media outlets reported that investigators have video surveillance footage showing three suspects putting up a tent near the victims’ tent and leaving the area after the slaying.

Safety precautions

Authorities in Denmark and Norway warned their citizens against hiking without local guides in Morocco after the killings. Danish police officials said on Wednesday they sent an officer to Morocco to assist in the investigation.

Maren Ueland’s mother, Irene Ueland, told Norwegian broadcaster NRK her daughter had taken safety precautions before making the trip.

Jespersen’s mother told tabloid BT that the family had warned her against undertaking the journey.

The University of South-Eastern Norway said on its website that both women were studying to earn bachelor’s degrees in outdoor life, culture and ecophilosophy. They attended a campus in Boe, southern Norway, west of Oslo.

“What we know is that they were on a month-long, private holiday in Morocco. Our thoughts go to the families,” the university said on its homepage, adding flags were flown at half-staff in their memory on Tuesday.

Morocco has been largely insulated from the attacks by armed groups that have plagued other countries in North Africa.

The latest bomb attack in the country dates back to April 2011 when 17 people were killed in a restaurant in Marrakech.

Morocco has stepped up its effort to counter armed groups with the creation in 2015 of its own version of the FBI. The Central Bureau for Judicial Investigations has so far broken up 57 cells of armed groups, including eight in 2018.

More than 1,000 Moroccan youths, predominantly from the north of the country, have joined armed groups in the Middle East .

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Suspects in killing of two Scandinavian tourists in Morocco pledge allegiance to Isis

Four men appear in video swearing loyalty to the jihadi group, article bookmarked.

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Four suspects in the killing of a pair of Scandinavian tourists in Morocco earlier this week swore fealty to Isis while standing beneath a makeshift flag of the jihadi group in a video that surfaced online on Thursday, showing the potency and geographical breadth of a network that US President Donald Trump said was defeated a day earlier.

Hours before, Denmark called the gruesome murder of two female tourists in a rural, mountainous part of Morocco a politically motivated “act of terror”, a day after authorities tied a suspect in the killing to a militant group.

The bodies of the two women, Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, of Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, of Norway , were discovered Monday in the Atlas Mountain range near the tourist hotspot of Marrakech, Morocco’s official news agency said. Moroccan authorities on Tuesday arrested at least one person in connection with the murder and later detained three others.

The killing can be considered “politically motivated and thus an act of terror”, Danish prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters on Thursday.

“What should have been a holiday trip turned into a nightmare,” he said. “Two women were killed in a bestial manner. We respond with dismay, disgust and deep sorrow.”

The killers allegedly recorded their ambush. They stabbed each woman and decapitated one with what appears to be a kitchen knife.

“This is for Syria,” a man is heard saying in the video, suggesting sympathy for Isis .

It remains unclear whether the suspects were battle-hardened veterans of Isis in Syria, Iraq or Libya, or were inspired by the group and radicalised themselves via the internet.

“People here are quite shocked,” Issandr el Amrani, Rabat-based North Africa director of the International Crisis Group, told The Independent .

“It’s unprecedented in Morocco and, especially if linked to a transnational jihadist group, a worrying development considering Morocco – unlike Algeria or Tunisia – did not have armed groups hiding in the mountains, or anything similar.”

A Moroccan prosecutor said at least one suspect under arrest had ties to militant groups, without identifying any organisation or network, according to the official MAP news agency.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb operates in much of North Africa, and Moroccan Isis recruits returning from Syria and Iraq are a major security concern.

Verdens Gang , a Norwegian tabloid newspaper, cited unnamed sources in the Moroccan prosecutor’s office as saying all four suspects had sworn allegiance to Isis. A statement by Danish security forces cited by The Associated Press also described suspected Isis links, though there has not yet been a claim of responsibility.

The remains of the two women were found by French tourists in a tent at a campsite near Mount Toubkal, the highest peak in the Atlas Mountains that is popular with climbers. The victims, both passionate about the outdoors, were reportedly on a month-long hiking trip.

“I’m going to Morocco in December,” Ms Jespersen wrote on her Facebook page 21 November. “Any of you guys who’s around by then, or any mountain friends who knows something about Mount Toubkal?”

Norwegian criminal investigators have joined Moroccan counterparts in sorting through surveillance camera footage from local businesses and interviewing potential witnesses, local media reported. Photographs of three of the four suspects have been issued.

Despite producing a large contingent of Isis recruits, terrorist attacks are relatively rare in Morocco, a struggling kingdom of 36 million people dependent on remittances from immigrants in Western Europe, tourism, phosphate exports and European investment.

Unlike Casablanca and its surrounding shantytowns, the Marrakesh area has had little militant activity since a 2011 bombing attack on a popular cafe killed 17 people. The city recently hosted a number of high-profile conferences that drew the likes of former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright and hosted this month’s UN global summit on migration.

“It is tragic for the region and for its tourist activity,” one man told the Moroccan news website Le360 . “Tourists from all over the world enjoy the views of the Atlas Mountains, as well as the world-famous Mount Toubkal.”

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Flooding kills more than 20 people in Morocco and Algeria

Morocco Floods Cars drive through a road that was damaged by floods caused by heavy rainfall in Tazarine, Zagora, southern Morocco, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. Moroccan authorities say exceptional weather has killed at least 11 people and destroyed homes in southern Morocco. (AP Photo) (STR/AP)

RABAT, Morocco — (AP) — Torrential downpours hit North Africa's normally arid mountains and deserts over the weekend, causing flooding that killed nearly two dozen people in Morocco and Algeria and destroyed homes and critical infrastructure.

In Morocco, officials said the two days of storms surpassed historic averages, in some cases exceeding the annual average rainfall. The downpours affected some of the regions that experienced a deadly earthquake one year ago.

Meteorologists had predicted that a rare deluge could strike North Africa’s Sahara Desert, where many areas receive less than an inch of rain a year.

Officials in Morocco said 18 people were killed in rural areas where infrastructure has historically been lacking, and 56 homes collapsed. Nine people were missing. Drinking water and electrical infrastructure were damaged, along with major roads.

Among the dead in the region, where many tourists go to enjoy desert landscapes, were foreigners from Canada and Peru.

Rachid El Khalfi, Morocco’s Interior Ministry spokesperson, said in a statement on Monday that the government was working to restore communication and access to flooded regions in the “exceptional situation” and urged people to use caution.

In neighboring Algeria, which held a presidential election over the weekend, authorities said at least five died in the country's desert provinces. Interior Minister Brahim Merad called the situation "catastrophic" on state-owned television.

Algeria’s state-run news service APS said the government had sent thousands of civil protection and military officers to help with emergency response efforts and rescue families stuck in their homes. The floods also damaged bridges and trains.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Flooding kills more than 20 people in Morocco and Algeria

Torrential downpours hit North Africa’s normally arid mountains and deserts over the weekend

RABAT, Morocco -- Torrential downpours hit North Africa's normally arid mountains and deserts over the weekend, causing flooding that killed nearly two dozen people in Morocco and Algeria and destroyed homes and critical infrastructure.

In Morocco, officials said the two days of storms surpassed historic averages, in some cases exceeding the annual average rainfall. The downpours affected some of the regions that experienced a deadly earthquake one year ago.

Meteorologists had predicted that a rare deluge could strike North Africa’s Sahara Desert, where many areas receive less than an inch of rain a year.

Officials in Morocco said 18 people were killed in rural areas where infrastructure has historically been lacking, and 56 homes collapsed. Nine people were missing. Drinking water and electrical infrastructure were damaged, along with major roads.

Among the dead in the region, where many tourists go to enjoy desert landscapes, were foreigners from Canada and Peru.

Rachid El Khalfi, Morocco’s Interior Ministry spokesperson, said in a statement on Monday that the government was working to restore communication and access to flooded regions in the “exceptional situation” and urged people to use caution.

In neighboring Algeria, which held a presidential election over the weekend, authorities said at least five died in the country's desert provinces. Interior Minister Brahim Merad called the situation “catastrophic” on state-owned television.

Algeria’s state-run news service APS said the government had sent thousands of civil protection and military officers to help with emergency response efforts and rescue families stuck in their homes. The floods also damaged bridges and trains.

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