Morocco rounds up bombing suspects

NBC, MSNBC & News Services ^ | 5/18/03 | NBC News’ Carl Rochelle at the Pentagon, Charlene Gubash in Cairo, Andrea Mitchell in Washington and

[Pro-Bush]

CASABLANCA, Morocco, May 18 — Moroccan investigators rounded up and questioned at least 33 suspected Islamic militants Saturday in connection with a series of suicide bombings that killed 41 people, including 13 attackers, in Casablanca, officials said. Authorities are focusing on whether the attackers are linked to a known extremist group that is suspected of ties to the al-Qaida network, a Moroccan official said. The United States said it strongly suspected that al-Qaida had a hand in the blasts, and the White House offered help in the investigation.
FIVE GROUPS of attackers — 14 in all — carried out the bombings, Interior Minister Mostapha Sahel said. A surviving, wounded attacker was being interrogated, he said. A bomb in working order was found in a raid on the assailant’s house, the minister said. A senior government source told Reuters that individuals linked to a radical Islamic group, Salafia Jihadia, were among 33 people held after the five almost simultaneous attacks at about 9:20 p.m. (5:20 p.m. ET) Friday. An official in the Interior Minister told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity that it was “too early at this stage to refer to them [those held] as arrests.” Sahel told state-run 2M television that police had already identified the bodies of seven of the cell believed to have carried out the attacks. Most of the victims were Moroccans, Sahel said. Salafia Jihadia has been the object of police sweeps for months. About 100 people found to have ties with the homegrown group were in custody before the attacks Friday night. They include an Islamic cleric known for his fiery sermons and anti-Western views who was detained in Casablanca in March. At least five Europeans — two Spaniards, two French and one Italian — were killed, according to Sahel. U.S. officials said they did not believe any Americans were among the dead or injured.

The deadliest bombing ripped through the upscale Casa de Espana social club as clients were playing bingo or dining. Some 20 people were killed, among them a guard whose throat was slit, according to the club president. U.S. officials in the region told NBC News that other explosions took place in front of the five-star Hotel Safir Casablanca, at an exclusive Spanish club and at the Belgian consulate. “People were severely wounded, crawling in the street, completely burned and disfigured,” said Sabah Mazouzi, a 33-year-old Moroccan teacher who was in the club but escaped unscathed. “I saw one person missing his jaw,” she said. Without directly implicating al-Qaida, the Moroccan government laid blame on international terrorism. “We have strong suspicions that this cell had contacts with foreign groups,” said the interior minister, though he also said the attackers appeared to all have been Moroccans.

Moroccan firefighters at Positana, a restaurant that served Casablanca's Jewish community. The restaurant was damaged by an explosion Friday night.

The bombings were “the work of an international network of blind terrorism,” Hassam Aourid, a spokesman for the Moroccan king, said in a statement carried by the official MAP news agency. “Morocco is determined to crack down on it without mercy,” he said. A policeman at Casa de Espana, an exclusive club popular with Spanish businessmen and diplomats, said the attackers slit the porter’s throat on entering. Besides the club, suicide bombers struck a Jewish community center called the Israelite Community Circle, an old Jewish cemetery, a major downtown hotel and the Belgian Consulate.

Radical Muslim groups have condemned the Moroccan government for its especially aggressive cooperation with Washington’s campaign against terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Some of the al-Qaida and Taliban members captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan are known to have been turned over to Moroccan authorities for questioning. Three Saudis were convicted in Casablanca for leading an al-Qaida plot to attack U.S. and British warships in the Straits of Gibraltar. A Moroccan court sentenced the three to 10 years in prison in February. All three Saudis admitted under interrogation that they had been trained in the use of weapons and explosives at al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

[Hugin]

Morocco rounds up bombing suspects

I assume the Casablanca police rounded up the usual suspects?

[Torie]

My thought exactly. The round up was simply too quick and expedient. Maybe the local authorities got lucky. But I am not one to buy into luck by and large.

[the Real fifi]

Apparently, passersby nabbed these guys. This is taken seriously in Morocco--I wouldn't want to trade places with these guys.

[aristeides]

Four Al Qaeda Suspects Arrested in Bombings, Saudis Say .

[aristeides]

Sorry, I had meant to link this story: Islamic Militants Held in Morocco Blasts: Police Detain Suspected Islamic Militants in Connection With Casablanca Suicide Bombings.