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Topic: 2003 Casablanca bombings


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In the News (Wed 10 Feb 10)

  
  CNN.com - Moroccan officials: At least 27 detained in attacks - May. 17, 2003
The terrace of the Casa de EspaƱa restaurant in Casablanca was wrecked in the bombings.
Casablanca is a city well-known for its tolerance and its diverse range of religious and ethnic communities.
The bombing occurred outside along the street between the consulate and the restaurant.
www.cnn.com /2003/WORLD/africa/05/17/morocco.blasts/index.html   (1060 words)

  
 Casablanca - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Casablanca remained a modestly-sized port, with a population reaching around 12,000 within a few years of the French conquest and arrival of French colonialists in the town, at first administrators within a sovereign sultanate, in 1906.
Casablanca was an important strategic port during World War II and hosted the Casablanca Conference in 1943, in which Churchill and Roosevelt discussed the progress of the war.
Casablanca is well served by international flights to Europe, especially French and Spanish airports, and has regular connections to North American, Middle Eastern and sub-Saharan African destinations.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Casablanca   (1806 words)

  
 Horror in Casablanca as al-Qaeda toll hits 41 | International | The Observer
Harrowing details of how terrorists slit the throats of security guards before detonating bombs in Moroccan bars and restaurants were revealed last night as police disclosed that at least 41 people had been killed in the latest atrocities linked to al-Qaeda.
President George Bush warned in his weekly radio address to the US yesterday: 'The enemies of freedom are not idle and neither are we.' He said the war on terror had weakened al-Qaeda but the US was hunting from Pakistan to the Philippines to the Horn of Africa for any suspects.
The co-ordinated bombing of five separate targets has clear parallels with similar attacks in the Saudi capital Riyadh last Monday which claimed 34 lives, taking the death toll to 75 in a week.
observer.guardian.co.uk /international/story/0,6903,958399,00.html   (931 words)

  
 Print Article: Suspects arrested over Casablanca bombings   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
Sahel said he was pleased with the rapid progress made in the investigation, in which the remains of six of the 13 suicide attackers had already been positively identified.
Bush said he "strongly" condemned the terrorist bombings, and extended his condolences to the families of the victims.
"Casablanca is a city well-known for its tolerance and its diverse range of religious and ethnic communities," he noted.
www.theage.com.au /cgi-bin/common/popupPrintArticle.pl?path=/articles/2003/05/18/1053196461746.html   (314 words)

  
 2003 Casablanca bombings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2003 Casablanca bombings were a series of suicide bombings on May 16, 2003, in Casablanca, Morocco.
Their plan was to hit Western and Jewish targets in the bustling tourist city of Casablanca, and may have been inspired to carry out their attacks sooner than expected after 3 Western compounds were bombed in Saudi Arabia on May 12.
The motive behind the bombings was probably the fact that Morocco had a history of good relationship with Jews; another possible motive was the US Invasion of Iraq.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/2003_Casablanca_bombings   (537 words)

  
 At least 40 dead in Morocco bombings
At least 40 people were killed and about 100 wounded in suicide bomb attacks in Morocco's biggest city Casablanca on Friday night, diplomatic sources in the capital Rabat said on Saturday.
This was the first major attack of its type in Morocco in recent years and followed suicide bombings of expatriate housing compounds in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Monday that killed 34.
Casablanca, Morocco's biggest city with a population of 3 million, lies on the Atlantic coast about 60 miles (95 km) southwest of the capital Rabat.
www.rediff.com /us/2003/may/17moro.htm   (706 words)

  
 Britain eyes links to Madrid bombings - The Boston Globe
Investigators also said the bombs were made of ''high explosives" -- shorthand for something such as TNT or plastics -- not a homemade concoction of chemicals.
Guerbouzi was sentenced in absentia by Morocco for his alleged role in the 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca which killed 32 bystanders.
Also yesterday, a second claim of responsibility for the London bombings appeared on a website, this one signed Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, a group whose name invokes the alias of Mohammed Atef, a top deputy to Osama bin Laden who was killed in a US airstrike in Afghanistan in November 2001.
www.boston.com /news/world/europe/articles/2005/07/10/britain_eyes_links_to_madrid_bombings   (1429 words)

  
 Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Qualifying Al-Qa'eda   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
In light of the timing and the similarity in targets and method, the suicide attacks in Riyadh and Casablanca, which left dozens dead and hundreds wounded, seemed to be the work of one organisation.
It is clear in both Riyadh and Casablanca that the strikes against local targets was only incidental, a result of their proximity to the main Western targets.
That the attacks in Casablanca targeted Spanish interests as well also demonstrates the importance of putting the operation in the context of the occupation of Iraq: Spain was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the war.
weekly.ahram.org.eg /2003/639/op16.htm   (1466 words)

  
 SignOnSanDiego.com > News > World -- Authorities investigate possible ties between Madrid attacks, Casablanca ...
Cell phones apparently were used as detonators on the 10 train bombs, and the five suspects were arrested after a phone and prepaid card were found on a bomb that failed to explode.
Benyaich, a French-Moroccan national, was arrested in Spain in 2003 in connection with the Casablanca bombings.
One of Benyaich's brothers was convicted in the Casablanca attacks and another was killed in November 2001 in the eastern Afghan region of Tora Bora, once a presumed hiding place of bin Laden.
www.signonsandiego.com /news/world/20040315-1540-spain-bombings.html   (1269 words)

  
 bitterlemons-international.org - Middle East Roundtable
To be sure, the organization of national elections in November 2002 and local elections in September 2003, which were not obviously rigged, and the reform of the personal status law in 2003, were rare enough in the region to be underlined.
However, the social background of the Moroccans involved in international terrorist attacks and in the May 16, 2003 Casablanca suicide bombings, and their probable utilization of the informal economy to finance their deeds, have underlined the spill-over effect of the Moroccan regime's governance.
For example, in Casablanca, a stronghold of the PJD, it was permitted to have candidates in only half of the districts.
www.bitterlemons-international.org /inside.php?id=307   (862 words)

  
 RTE News - 15 terror suspects arrested in Paris
It is reported that French police have arrested 15 people suspected of having links with bomb attacks in Morocco last year.
In May of last year, 45 people were killed in almost simultaneous attacks in Casablanca.
According to an Interior Ministry source, nine men and six women were detained in the raids, carried out in the Paris suburbs of Aulnay-sous-Bois and Mantes-la-Jolie.
www.rte.ie /news/2004/0405/morocco.html   (84 words)

  
 TAP: Web Feature: Usual Suspect. by Morgan Meis. June 20, 2003.   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
Seeing Casablanca in international headlines has the effect, at least for most Americans, of calling to mind the film of the same name.
Casablanca is a movie about that way of being; it glories in that way of being.
Casablanca is, at its core, a tribute to civil society, to faith in the institution-building aspect of human reason.
www.prospect.org /webfeatures/2003/06/meis-m-06-20.html   (1126 words)

  
 Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Double-edged sword
In a statement issued following the bombings in Casablanca the Moroccan Unification and Reform Movement declared: "This vile criminal act which targeted buildings and innocent civilians is an abomination." It added that such acts were inimical to Islam and did not serve Muslim causes.
The recent bombings have cast to the fore the relationship between reform and security.
Some have seized upon the bombings in Riyadh and Casablanca to justify their contention that reform and security are antithetical and mutually exclusive.
weekly.ahram.org.eg /2003/639/op1.htm   (945 words)

  
 CNN.com - Morocco: Two bombers talking to police - May. 19, 2003
Two participants in Friday night's suicide bombings have been captured and are providing valuable information to police, Morocco's interior minister said Monday.
It was not clear whether the change reported by Sahel meant the death toll from the five bombings had been revised to 41, or if it meant that 30 victims had died, instead of the 29 previously reported.
The key question dogging investigators is whether the attacks were launched by local extremists or were coordinated by an international terrorist group.
www.cnn.com /2003/WORLD/africa/05/19/morocco.bombings/index.html   (677 words)

  
 Attacks on the Press 2004: Mideast
The government eased a crackdown against independent journalists launched after multiple suicide bombings in Casablanca in 2003.
Moroccan journalists were also anxious about aspects of the country's antiterrorism law, adopted shortly after the 2003 Casablanca bombings and subsequently used to suspend three publications and to jail at least four journalists who wrote about extremist groups.
Although they were never given a specific reason, one of the agents who picked up the journalists from their hotel noted their reporting on Western Sahara.
www.cpj.org /attacks04/mideast04/morocco.html   (655 words)

  
 Informed Comment
The death toll of the bombings in Casablanca as I write is being given as over 20, with 60 wounded.
Casablanca is the Mediterranean commercial center of Morocco, a center of tourism and French culture and internationalism.
This bombing is likely to be another reply by al-Qaeda to the greatly exaggerated rumors of its death.
www.juancole.com /2003/05/death-toll-of-bombings-in-casablanca.html   (799 words)

  
 Spain's 9/11: the moroccan connection | The Tharwa project
The bombings in Casablanca in May 2003, coupled with the violence from Islamic militants in Algeria and Mauritania, demonstrate the growing importance of Northwest Africa to militant Islamist groups that espouse al-Qaeda's philosophy.
Six out of the seven bombing suspects found dead in a Madrid flat in April in an apparent mass suicide after police surrounded them, also were Moroccan.
Abu Seif al-Islam, a senior leader of the Salafi movement in Morocco, stated in May 2003 that the time has come to "globalize the Jihad." His movement is considered sympathetic to Osama bin Laden.
www.tharwaproject.com /node/1010   (1681 words)

  
 BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Terror blasts rock Casablanca
Mr Sahel said there were similarities between the bombings in Casablanca and Riyadh.
The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner says there are indications that the Casablanca blasts were al-Qaeda inspired - and were probably the work of a "North African cell linked to al-Qaeda".
"Casablanca is a town in shock, Morocco is a country in shock.
news.bbc.co.uk /1/hi/world/africa/3035803.stm   (756 words)

  
 James S. Robbins on Jordan & Terrorism on National Review Online
In Jordan, a researcher found that since the bombing, nine of ten people he surveyed who had previously held a favorable view of al Qaeda had changed their minds.
For example: In the May 2003 Casablanca bombings (which Zarqawi was allegedly involved in as well), one of the cell leaders chose at the last minute not to detonate his bomb and collect a trip to paradise.
So too with the Amman bombing; 35-year-old Sajida Mubarak Atrous al Rishawi suffered a wardrobe malfunction and now has become an invaluable asset in understanding the means, motives and methods of the suicide cell.
www.nationalreview.com /robbins/robbins200511140818.asp   (1197 words)

  
 Bombings may spur antiterror unity | csmonitor.com
But the strike in Casablanca, Morocco, on Friday - targeting a Spanish cultural center, the Belgian Consulate, a Jewish community center, and a cosmopolitan hotel - as well as the recent bombings in Saudi Arabia demonstrate how radical Islam is fixed on other totems as well.
To the extent that such attacks continue and include non-American targets, they reinforce the notion temporarily lost during the animosity over the Iraq war that much of the world is vulnerable to terrorist violence and that strong international cooperation is needed curb it.
Last week's bombings in Riyadh and Casablanca, which together killed more than 70 people, have not been directly linked to Al Qaeda, although they show the earmarks of its operations, US officials say: use of suicide bombers, and nearly simultaneous explosions at multiple sites.
www.csmonitor.com /2003/0519/p01s01-wogi.htm   (850 words)

  
 Asia Times Online :: Southeast Asia news and business from Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam
It had been reported in 2003 that one of the people carrying a package involved in the May 2003 Casablanca bombings was not aware it contained an IED, which was activated through a cell phone by terrorists as soon as the carrier reached the vicinity of the intended target.
The sole incident so far involving the use of a car bomb and the recurring instances of the use of cell phones to trigger IEDs indicate that the terrorists operating in southern Thailand are becoming increasingly technology savvy.
The terrorists emulate the post-June 2003 example of the Iraqi resistance fighters, who operate in small autonomous cells without the need for a noticeable organizational infrastructure and consciously refrain from claiming responsibility for their successes.
www.atimes.com /atimes/Southeast_Asia/GD06Ae03.html   (2160 words)

  
 Islam Online- News Section   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
CASABLANCA, August 19 (IslamOnline.net and News Agencies) - A Moroccan criminal court on Tuesday, August 19, sentenced four people to death and dozens others to heavy jail terms for involvement in the bombing attacks that killed 45 people in the city of Casablanca in May.
On May 17, 45 people, including 12 bombers, were killed and scores more wounded in a string of bomb blasts that rocked Morocco's second largest city of Casablanca.
A total of 634 people were arrested in massive police sweeps which followed the Casablanca bombings which drew widespread international condemnation.
www.islamonline.net /English/News/2003-08/19/article06.shtml   (554 words)

  
 The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Spanish demand details on Madrid bombings
Spaniards have known for months that, long before the bombings occurred, police and intelligence forces were monitoring the individuals who would carry out the attacks.
In February 2003, he observed that Jamal Zougam, currently awaiting trial as a presumed author of the attacks, had joined the cell.
And he recounted how Mohammed Larbi Ben Sellam, suspected of a role in the 2003 Casablanca bombings, had told him "he didn't understand why most were so obsessed with going to...
seattletimes.nwsource.com /html/nationworld/2002315752_spain06.html   (702 words)

  
 Moroccan prisoner dead in hunger strike? | World War 4 Report
An Islamist prisoner, accused of involvement in the 2003 Casablanca bombings, has died in a Moroccan prison on hunger strike, al-Jazeera reports.
The strikers deny involvement in the bombings and say they have been tortured.
Abu Usama, a prisoner in Autaita jail, told Aljazeera the prisoners were demanding the Moroccan authorities open an investigation into rights violations they faced in Morocco's prisons and jails, including being made to sign confessions under threat of torture.
ww4report.com /node/521   (177 words)

  
 Index of Economic Freedom 2006 - Morocco
The World Bank reports that Morocco's weighted average tariff rate in 2003 (the most recent year for which World Bank data are available) was 24.9 percent, down from the 28.2 percent in 2002 reported in the 2005 Index, based on World Bank data.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, "The greatest barriers to trade in Morocco are irregularities in the government procurement procedures, lack of transparent governmental and judicial bureaucracies and contraband." Based on the revised trade factor methodology, Morocco's trade policy score is unchanged.
In June 2003, Morocco implemented a new tariff system for grains (barley, wheat, and corn) that resulted in a significant increase in tariffs for bread wheat." The government also influences prices through the country's many state-owned enterprises.
www.heritage.org /research/features/index/country.cfm?id=Morocco   (950 words)

  
 Belmont Club
In Casablanca, it was Abdelhaq Moulsabbat served as the emir of Assirat al-Moustaquim, the subgroup within Salafi Jihad that perpetrated the Casablanca bombings.
The Moroccan reaction to what happened in Casablanca actually serves as a fairly good example to other Arab countries of how to deal with al-Qaeda in a non-Western society.
The Summer of 2003 Although President Johnson beg...
belmontclub.blogspot.com /2004/03/toothpaste-effect-dan-darling-at-winds.html   (1179 words)

  
 Four to Die for Casablanca Bombings
CASABLANCA, 20 August 2003 — A Casablanca court yesterday sentenced four men to death for their involvement in a wave of near-simultaneous suicide bombings in May that killed 45 people, including 12 bombers.
The four were found guilty of having planned the simultaneous bombings of a Spanish restaurant, a five-star hotel and a Jewish community center.
Omari was one of those assigned to bomb the five-star Farah Hotel but was seized by by-standers after running away from the hotel, where one of his associates had already detonated his bomb.
www.arabnews.com /?page=4§ion=0&article=30605&d=20&m=8&y=2003   (583 words)

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