Youssef Boudlal/Reuters
Moroccan authorities have arrested nine new suspects in connection with the brutal slayings of two Scandinavian tourists on a camping trip earlier this month. The newest suspects were arrested in various cities based on their alleged ties to the four men believed to have carried out the murders of 28-year-old Maren Ueland of Norway and 24-year-old Louisa Jespersen of Denmark, the state-controlled 2M news agency reports. Police are said to have also recovered “suspicious substances that could potentially be used in making explosives” during the course of the latest raids. The bodies of the women were found mutilated near a camping area in the Atlas Mountains on Monday, and both Danish and Moroccan authorities have described the murders as terrorism. The four men accused of carrying out the murder had reportedly filmed a video pledging loyalty to the so-called Islamic State from inside a tent near the camp site, though investigators say there is no evidence that they had ties to the terrorist group abroad.