39 MURDERED IN CASABLANCA BY ARABS,AGAIN

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At least 39 killed in series of suicide bombings in Casablanca

By Yossi Melman and News Agencies



A total of 39 people were killed and scores wounded in suicide bombings in
Morocco's biggest city Casablanca hours after the United States said al
Qaida was poised to strike again, authorities said on Saturday.

At least 100 people were injured. The blasts Friday night damaged a Jewish
community center and old cemetery, the Belgian consulate, the Spanish
restaurant and a hotel.

It was the second major attack within a week on an Arab state with
historically close ties to the United States. Saudi Arabia was hit by
multiple suicide bombings on Monday.

"International terrorism struck Casablanca tonight," Moroccan Interior
Minister Al Mustapha Sahel was quoted as saying by 2M television on
Saturday.

Suicide bombers carried out five attacks and as many as 10 of the dead may
have been assailants, he was quoted as saying by the official MAP news
agency. One Spaniard was killed and four were hurt, two seriously, a
diplomatic source cited Moroccan authorities saying.

Sahel told reporters 39 people were killed and 65 wounded - 17 of them
seriously. Diplomatic sources had said earlier at least 40 people were
killed and 100 wounded.

The blasts came hours after U.S. President George W. Bush warned of "killers
on the loose" as terror alerts spread around the world after the bombings in
the Saudi capital Riyadh, which killed 34 people including eight Americans.

"It is certainly a wake-up call to many that the war on terror continues,"
Bush told reporters.

No Israelis, Jews among terror attack victims
The Israeli Foreign Ministry on Saturday said that there were no Israelis
among the victims of the Casablanca bombings. Sam Ben-Sheetrit, president of
the Federation of Moroccan Jews, said that none of the city’s Jewish
residents were hurt in the attack.

There are about 4,000 Jews living in Casablanca.

Some 40 Israelis were staying at the Hotel Farah Safir at the time of the
bombing, Army Radio reported Saturday.

One of the guests, Avi Avizemer, told the radio that Moroccan authorities
evacuated the Israelis to secure hotels in other cities, including
Marrakech. He said that over the past few days some 3,000 Israelis and Jews
from all over world had arrived in Morocco to attend festivities in honor of
rabbi Amram Divan in the north of the country.

Israel Radio on Saturday quoted Foreign Ministry officials as saying that
there was an ideological connection between the attacks in Riyadh,
Casablanca and Tel Aviv, which were a wave of international terror directed
at the West, with no connection to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Moroccan government did not directly implicate Osama bin Laden's al-
Qaida network in the nearly simultaneous explosions, but the attack
confirmed fears that terrorists have plans to strike lightly defended sites.

Government officials had originally reported that at least three of the
attacks were cause by car bombs, but the government official said all of the
blasts were carried out by suicide bombers carrying explosives.

A diplomatic source speaking on condition of anonymity said at least one
Spanish citizen was among the dead, but that could not be officially
confirmed. Spain's foreign minister said there were no Spanish residents of
Casablanca among the victims, but that Spaniards visiting the city could
have been hurt.

"They were terrorists, suicide bombers," Interior Minister Sahel told
reporters. "These are the well-known signatures of international
terrorists."

Sahel did not name the al-Qaida terrorist network, but cities across the
globe had been bracing for the possibility of attacks the group. In Morocco,
municipal elections were delayed in April over concerns of growing Muslim
fundamentalism.

"The Kingdom of Morocco will never surrender to terrorists and will not
allow anyone to disturb its security," he told reporters.

No claim of responsibility
A U.S. counterterrorism official in Washington said late Friday there were
no immediate claims of responsibility or any clear indication of who
conducted the bombings.

However, the official said al-Qaida involvement was plausible, given the
group's apparent intention to conduct a series of strikes against lightly
defended targets. Al-Qaida maintains a presence in Morocco, the official
said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official Moroccan news agency MAP reported that three suspects, all
Moroccans, were apprehended, without elaborating. The agency also said that
10 of the dead were attackers.

The blasts appeared to take place almost simultaneously just after 9 P.M.
officials said.

Spanish National Radio reported that 15 people had died in the attack on the
Spanish restaurant, making it the bloodiest of the five assaults.

Lamia Haffi, an employee of the restaurant, told the radio station three
attackers entered the site after killing a security guard by cutting his
throat with a large knife. Then two of them detonated bombs. "Inside, there
was flesh. Flesh everywhere," she said.

Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Didier Seeuws told the Belgian news
agency Belga that the Belgian consulate was heavily damaged. He said two
policemen outside the building were killed and a security guard was
hospitalized. Belgian officials said they were not sure if their consulate
was a target.

The blasts came just four days after a series of suicide bombings in the
Saudi capital, Riyadh, killed 34 people at three foreigners' housing
compounds.

King Mohammed VI, who was scheduled to travel to the bomb site in
Casablanca, had expressed concern the war could rouse the country's Islamic
fundamentalist movement.

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