Three suspected terrorists blew themselves up with a fourth shot
dead by police following an anti-terrorist raid in Casablanca
Tuesday, according to media reports.
A police officer was killed and another was seriously injured. A
young child also was injured, authorities said.
The violence started when police surrounded a four-story
apartment building in a Casablanca slum where the suspected
terrorists were holed up, officials said.
Sources and witnesses said one of the suspects blew himself up
after he was trapped on a roof terrace. A second man appeared to be
on the verge of also detonating explosives when a police sniper
shot him. The suspect later died of his wounds.
Among the two on the run, one suspect blew himself up in the
afternoon as police were searching the neighborhood for him. He was
identified as Ayyoub Raydi, the brother of Abdelfettah Raydi, who
detonated explosives in an Internet cafe, killing himself and
wounding four others in Casablanca March 11.
In the evening, a fourth person detonated his explosives in the
middle of a boulevard.
The four were members of a gang of up to 12 that police have been
looking for since March 11 bombing, police sources added.
They believed the bombers had started wearing the belts all the
time to stop security forces taking them alive.
Morocco has been on the alert for attacks since 2003 when 13
suicide bombers killed themselves and 32 other people in central
Casablanca in an attempt to punish the country for being a staunch
ally of the United States in its "war on terror."
Moroccan authorities responded to the attacks with the arrest of
thousands of alleged Islamic militants -- some accused of working
with al Qaeda to plot strikes in Morocco and abroad.
Raydi and many other suspects were among the arrested, but were
later released from prison under a royal pardon.
(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2007)
