PLACEMARK
Bombers planned to blow up ships in Morocco -papers
Mar 22, 2007 — RABAT (Reuters) - At least 12 would-be suicide bombers planned to blow up foreign ships at Casablanca port and other Moroccan landmarks, top security officials were quoted as saying on Thursday.
They said at least six of the suspected bombers were still on the run, but others were arrested after their presumed leader blew himself up on March 11 to stop police taking him alive.
Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa, his deputy Fouad Al Himma and Benabdallah Oumzazi, a top ministry official, briefed local newspaper editors on Tuesday night on what the media called a "lucky accident" that helped foil a mass bombing plot.
Abdelfattah Raydi, the 23-year suspected leader of the group of bombers, walked into an Internet cafe in Casablanca's Sidi Moumen slum on March 11 with another suspected bomber.
Raydi, who had worn an explosives belt for four days to avoid police catching him alive, detonated the device when the cafe owner shut the door and called authorities after he saw him consulting a jihadist Web site, newspapers said.
The papers quoted officials as saying the attacks were not scheduled for March 11, but gave no more details.
Youssef Khoudri, a 18-year-old mint seller who was accompanying Raydi, was wounded and arrested by police. Both lived in Douar Escuela, Casablanca's poorest slum.
"Investigations showed that 12 suicide bombers among 30 terrorists linked to March 11's Casablanca plot were prepared to attack economic and security targets including blowing up foreign ships at Casablanca port and tourism facilities in Marrakesh, Essaouira and Agadir," wrote al Ahdath al Maghribia daily. The three cities are Morocco's main tourist destinations.
The Arabic-language newspaper cited among other targets unspecified security facilities in Casablanca, where suicide bombers killed 45 people in 2003.
"POISON" ATTACKS
The papers also quoted officials as saying the would-be bombers planned to use "poison" in their planned attacks, showing a change in the country's home-grown terror......[MORE]
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2972832