Moroccan minister: al-Qaida suspect in cafe blast
MARRAKECH, Morocco
Taib Cherqaoui raised the death toll in Thursday's attack on a
cafe sitting on a famed square in Marrakech to 16 -- 14 of them
foreigners, mostly Europeans and at least half of them French.
He said 25 people were injured, 14 of them hospitalized.
The bomb was triggered remotely and packed with nails. Some were
found at the scene of the blast, others in the bodies of victims,
Cherqaoui said.
"The manner reminds us of the style used generally by
al-Qaida," Cherqaoui said. "And this leads us to think that there
is a possibility of more dangers to come."
No one has claimed responsibility for Morocco's deadliest attack
since 2003.
Morocco has regularly dismantled al-Qaida cells and at times
said it had stopped plots in the making. Thousands of Islamists,
either suspects or convicted in terror-linked affairs, are in
Moroccan jails.
In the first official breakdown of victims, the minister said
that 16 people had died -- the latest a French woman who died late
afternoon Friday in a hospital.
Two Moroccans were killed in the blast that tore the facade off
the second-story of the Argana cafe in the historic Djemma el-Fna
square, one of the top attractions in a country that depends
heavily on tourism.
At least seven of the 14 foreigners were French, two were
Canadian, one Dutch and one British, the minister said. Experts
were still trying to identify the other three through DNA, he said.
However, he included them among the foreigners killed.
