CASABLANCA, Morocco: The family of a Moroccan jet skier killed at sea by gunfire blamed on Algeria decried on Tuesday the sluggish repatriation of the body, one month after his death.
Abdelali Mechouar, a Moroccan who resides in France, and his French-Moroccan cousin Bilal Kissi were killed on August 29 allegedly by Algerian coast guards while they were lost on jet skis, according to a survivor.
Kissi’s corpse was found on the Moroccan side of the border.
“We have zero information on the body of our son,” Mechouar’s father Mostafa told AFP on Tuesday. “We want the process to be accelerated so we can grieve.”
The incident comes at a time of increased tensions between the neighboring North African countries which have no diplomatic ties.
Hakim Chergui, the Mechouar family’s French lawyer, said they “have arrived at a blockage,” in which the “military prosecutor’s office has not been responding for a week,” he said, wondering about the “slowness.”
An investigation has been opened by the prosecutor’s office in Oujda, in eastern Morocco near the border with Algeria, and another in France.
Algeria’s defense ministry on September 3 said its security forces had opened fire on the jet skiers “after issuing an audible warning and ordering them to stop several times,” adding that “the suspects refused to comply and fled.”
The defense ministry said that after several warning rounds, “shots were fired, forcing one of the jet skis to stop, and the other two fled.”
In a letter to Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, seen on Tuesday by AFP, the Mechouar family asked Tebboune to intervene for the restitution of Mechouar’s body as soon as possible.
Mechouar and Kissi were accompanied by Smail Snabe, a French-Moroccan who was wounded and detained in Algeria, according to Kissi’s brother, Mohamed, who was with the group before being rescued by the Moroccan navy.
They all left from the tourist beach of Saidia near the Algerian border, before getting lost at sea and running out of fuel, he said.
Rabat has made no official statement.
Algiers cut off diplomatic relations with Rabat in August 2021, accusing Morocco of “hostile acts” — a decision Rabat called “completely unjustified.”
The dispute over the Western Sahara territory has exacerbated tensions.
Family seeks body of Morocco jet skier killed in Algeria
https://arab.news/cew4b
Family seeks body of Morocco jet skier killed in Algeria
- “We have zero information on the body of our son,” Mechouar’s father Mostafa told AFP on Tuesday
- “We want the process to be accelerated so we can grieve”
Two dead in Israeli strikes on Lebanon
- Israel has kept up regular strikes in Lebanon despite the November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah
SIDON, Lebanon: Israeli strikes in south Lebanon killed two people on Wednesday, authorities said, as Israel said it targeted operatives from militant group Hezbollah.
Israel has kept up regular strikes in Lebanon despite the November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, usually saying it is targeting members of the Iran-backed group or its infrastructure.
The health ministry said that an “Israeli enemy strike... on a vehicle in the town of Zahrani in the Sidon district killed one person,” referring to an area far from the Israeli border.
An AFP correspondent saw a charred car on a main road with debris strewn across the area and emergency workers in attendance.
Later, the ministry said another strike targeting a vehicle in the town of Bazuriyeh in the Tyre district killed one person.
Israel said it struck operatives from the militant group in both areas, saying the raids came “in response to Hezbollah’s repeated violations of the ceasefire understandings.”
This month, Lebanon’s army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm the group, covering the area south of the Litani river, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border.
The strike in Zahrani on Wednesday was north of the Litani.
Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army’s progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.
More than 350 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of health ministry reports.
