Lair Of Morocco Bombers Found

The Guardian ^ | 5-20-2003 | Alastair Macdonald

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Lair of Morocco bombers found

Alastair Macdonald, Reuters
Tuesday May 20, 2003
The Guardian

The Moroccan police arrested a chemistry graduate yesterday after finding a suspected suicide bombers' lair in Casablanca, and the Saudi authorities detained a gunman outside the US consulate in Dharan. The news came as a senior American official conceded that there was no end in sight to the war on terror.

Experts say last week's suicide attacks are evidence that al-Qaida is regrouping. One said that it had replaced its captured military chief, the alleged planner of 9/11 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Egypt, an Arab ally which counselled the US against war in Iraq for fear it would foster a "hundred new Bin Ladens", said its prediction had come true. Its foreign minister, Ahmed Maher, called for more cooperation.

But President Bush insisted that his anti-terror campaign was on track.

"I always said this was going to be a long war," he told a news conference.

The state department's director of policy planning, Richard Haass, compared the war to an endemic virus which would break out every so often: "This is a war that is not going to have any end for the foreseeable future."

An expert on al-Qaida, Rogan Gunaratna, said that Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian, has been appointed its new military chief but was not behind last week's attacks, which had been planned by Mr Mohammed before he was captured in Pakistan three months ago.

Mr Adel, who has a £15m price on his head from the FBI, is thought to be hiding along the Pakistani-Afghan border.

Some analysts believe the attacks in Morocco, which killed 41 people, and in Riyadh, which killed 34, are evidence that extra security has deterred al-Qaida from attacking rich western states.

Saudi officials admitted yesterday that its al-Qaida problem was worse than at first thought.

Sources say that the country may have three to five al-Qaida cells, each comprising as many as several dozen members.