MOROCCO - Fatal Terrorist Attacks in Casablanca
5/16/2003 - Friday evening seven criminal explosions have struck Casablanca, the economic capital of
Morocco.
Following the series of bomb attacks concentrated in its historical center, the assessment grew heavy
this Saturday in Casablanca: 41 dead and a hundred wounded counted up to now, including 37
Morrocans, 2 Spanish, 1 Italian and 1 French. The first explosion occurred around 10 pm in the
district of the consulates, followed by several others in the same surroundings. Seven bombs would
have exploded in all, placed by kamikazes and booby-trapped cars.
A parallel with the triple suicide-attacks of Ryad last Monday was at once made with regard to the
targets selected and the simultaneity of the attacks. The buildings concerned are an international class
hotel, a Spanish club, the circle of Israeli alliance and the consulate of Belgium. Explosions would have
also occurred at "La Corniche", the Casablanca night hawks? place of predilection. A new explosion,
in addition, was heard this Saturday morning at 6 am. Witnesses affirm that it hit the El Farah hotel,
already hurt the day before.
An official statement indicates this Saturday morning that ten kamikazes have been found dead during
these operations and that three suspects were stopped. From unconfirmed source, they would be
Morrocans.
A cell of crisis was very quickly established Friday evening, whereas the King was in the area of Fès
and Meknès, because of the festivities organized for his anniversary. The Minister of Interior
Department, Mustafa Sahel intervened on the television to denounce these "attacks against democracy
and the stability of Morocco" and to blame "an international terrorist organization". A few months ago
indeed, three Saudis and six Morrocans were sentenced in Morocco and were shown to belong to a
dormant Al Qaïda cell having prepared attacks against American ships based in the Straits of Gibraltar.
In February, the diffusion of a cassette of Ossama Ben Laden quoted Morocco among "the apostate
Arab countries" that the terrorists were to strike. The government seemed to have taken these threats
seriously, by multiplying arrests among radicals within Islamic sets and by voting restrictive laws.
The American consulate was protected as soon as the first attacks were announced, while helicopters
flew over the city.
Mustafa Ramid, the head of the Islamic party entered into the Parliament during the last September?s
legislature, immediately condemned the "terrorist crime" and "those who perpetrated it and those who
financed it". The authorities will certainly exert a pressure on fundamentalists on whom international
terrorist organizations can be based.
For several months, those who are locally called "the Afghans", because of their austere setting, have
been more and more visible in particular within the popular neighborhoods of Casablanca. They belong
to the hundreds of Morrocans having been engaged in Afghanistan to join the Talibans in the 1980s
and who gradually returned to Morocco. However, it would be hasty and simplistic to point the finger
at them a few hours after the attacks of Casablanca, which no one had yet claimed responsibility of.-
(Source RFI)
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