CASABLANCA, 19 May 2003 — Investigators launched raids across Morocco yesterday in search of militants suspected in the string of suicide bombings that killed 28 bystanders on Friday.
The raids came as grieving Moroccans nailed together coffins for the victims of the blasts, which also killed 13 of the attackers and damaged a Spanish restaurant, a Jewish community center and cemetery, a hotel and the Belgian consulate.
“All Moroccans are victims of this,” said Lamine El Metouate, wiping tears from his face after he put his dead son’s body in the coffin at Casablanca’s morgue. “And it’s not just Moroccans, but the whole world.”
Agents have detained “several dozen” militants in Casablanca, Fez and Tangier in two days of raids on suspicion at least two Moroccan Islamic groups were behind the deadly blasts, officials said. Among the raid sites was Sidi Moumen, a working-class Casablanca neighborhood where several of the bombers are believed to be from.
“The judicial police...are continuing their operations against the networks that are already known by our services,” a security officer told the Associated Press.
Several officials said they could not give a precise figure on the detentions, which began Saturday, since the number was constantly in flux and the operations were being conducted in several cities.
Justice Minister Mohamed Bouzoubaa denied there were any foreigners among the 14 suicide bombers, one of whom survived and was being questioned by police.
Bouzoubaa said that at least eight of the bombers had been identified, though it was unclear how officials knew the unidentified attackers were Moroccans. He said they all had spent time abroad before returning to Morocco before the attacks.
The raids continued as King Mohammed VI visited the blast sites and a hospital where most of the wounded were being cared for. At the damaged hotel, he stepped up the cracked stone steps and through the charred entrance for a look before moving to the next site.
A diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said that American and French anti-terrorism experts had begun arriving in Casablanca on Saturday to assist with the investigation.
Casablanca was in shock yesterday. There was a heavy military presence in the bombed areas, with green-uniformed riot police patrolling the streets or sitting in parked trucks. At the city morgue, workers nailed together coffins and put some of the dead in an ambulance to transport them to cemeteries. A group of about 100 people, some of them crying, looked on.
The bombings were a blow to Morocco, which had largely escaped terrorist violence and had enjoyed an international image as a relaxed, peaceful tourist destination.
“This is the same thing as the Twin Towers in the United States,” said Ahmed Chakir, a Casablanca taxi-driver who banged his fist on the dashboard in anger. “The Americans didn’t think that it could happen, and neither did we.”
The nation’s newspapers expressed outrage at the attacks. Le Journal had the headline “The Horror” in bold letters on its front page. Many of the papers featured graphic photographs of the ravaged bodies of the victims.
Police, who set up checkpoints on roads into Casablanca, were trying to determine if the attackers were linked to a known extremist group Salafia Jihadia, which is accused of ties to Al-Qaeda. Another Moroccan group suspected is the Attakfir wal Hijra, also believed to have Al-Qaeda links, a security officer 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 as recently as March, including a suspected leader — Abdelwaheb Rafiki, 30 — who once called Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden “a hero of the Muslim world.”
The attacks, which came just four days after similar terror attacks on Western targets in Riyadh that killed 34 people, appeared to target mainly Jewish and Spanish interests. Spain was a leading US ally in the war on Iraq.
