Posted on 05/16/2003 8:56:01 PM PDT by paulklenk
Filed at 9:43 p.m. ET
RABAT (Reuters) - At least 20 people were killed in at least four separate bomb attacks in Morocco's commercial capital Casablanca on Friday night, the state news agency said.
Jewish, Spanish and, apparently, Belgian targets were also struck, the MAP agency said. Three of the blasts were car bombs. Two policemen and a security guard at a Spanish center were among the dead. Glass, blood and debris littered the scenes.
``There are body parts all over the place,'' Moroccan journalist Aboubakr Jammai told the BBC, describing an eyewitness account from the Spanish center. He said at least one of the explosions involved a suicide bomber.
Against a background of a worldwide terror alert, this was the first major attack of its type in Morocco in recent years.
The blasts follow attacks by suicide bombers using vehicles at expatriate housing compounds in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh on Monday in which 34 people died and warnings that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group was poised to strike again.
A U.S. official in Washington said the coordinated assaults said it was ``plausible'' to suggest that al Qaeda, blamed by the United States for the synchronized September 11 hijacks, was behind the Casablanca bombings.
Moroccan television showed extensive damage at the bomb scenes, including blood-stained glass, men walking around in shock and a woman carrying a child wrapped in a blanket across broken glass and rubble. A crowd milled around outside the shattered facade of a building.
In Madrid, a Spanish diplomatic source quoted the Spanish consulate in Morocco as saying there had been an explosion near the Belgian consulate, one in the restaurant of a Spanish social club, the Casa de Espana, one at the Hotel Safir, one at a Jewish cultural center and one at either the office or residence of the U.S. consul.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman said no U.S. government facility was hit, however.
A Spanish state radio correspondent reported four or five grenade explosions. He said a young suicide bomber had apparently set off a grenade in his belt at the Spanish center.
Spain was a vocal supporter of the U.S. war on Iraq and has had fraught relations with Morocco, where Madrid once exercised colonial powers.
EIGHT DEAD AT HOTEL
Moroccan journalists at the scene said the car bomb near the Belgian consulate may actually have been aimed at a nearby Jewish restaurant. They said eight people were believed dead at the Hotel Safir.
The fourth bomb reported by MAP, at the Spanish center, was apparently not in a car.
Three suspects were arrested, MAP said, giving no details.
Casablanca lies on the Atlantic coast about 60 miles southwest of the capital Rabat.
In May and June last year, Morocco arrested three Saudis and seven Moroccans suspected of links to al Qaeda for allegedly plotting to attack U.S. and British warships crossing the Gibraltar Strait, and carry out ``terrorist'' attacks against tourist sites in Morocco.
In August last year, the authorities -- who keep tight control over Islamist activity in the kingdom -- arrested 30 radical Islamists for allegedly killing of several Moroccans.
Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a truck bomb attack on a synagogue in another North African country, Tunisia, in April last year in which 20 people -- including 14 German tourists -- were killed. Neighboring Algeria has been riven by Islamist violence against the government for over a decade.
Here's something I didn't realize, Al Quada, for all its anti-israel talk, has never actually attacked a target in Israel. Can somone check to see if thats actually true?
I think that their intention is to 1) take revenge on Morocco for supporting the US policies and 2) to mobilize the small but fanatical elements within radical islam and 3) to push the moderate muslims off the fence.
Muslims are typically outraged only by western nations attacking islamic nations. When muslims are doing the attacking--either against other muslims or against the west--the general population of muslims looks first to calculate who the eventual winner might be before choosing sides. I think Al Queda hopes to convince moderate muslims that the greatest risk is on the side of moderation.
Things play out differently on the arab street than they would in Wisconsin.
I say we start digging in the Artic tomorrow, cut our oil use to half of what it was thru better fuel efficiency or at least threaten to do that .....
once the oil cartel realizes we don't need them, then and only then will they really go after these nuts and crazies......
I am also in full favor of a total secret assault via the cia and special forces in all there Arab countries against there terrorists....
It might not be a bad idea to take out several rabid imams...Besides that, we already have an openly announced policy: any nation that supports terrorists is a terrorist.
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