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CASABLANCA - Three suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up after a police raid on a house in a Casablanca slum in which a fourth man was shot dead.
Two of the men had been on the run since a raid in Fida neighbourhood in which one suspected Islamist militant was killed by police and an accomplice blew himself up after he was trapped on a roof terrace, police sources and witnesses said.
The four were members of a gang of up to 12 that police have been looking for since March 11, when the alleged leader of a suicide squad detonated his explosives belt in a cybercafe to stop police arresting him. Police sources said 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 so-called "war on terror".
The MAP state news agency said two police officers were injured when the third suspect blew himself up later in the day, and that one of the officers died from his wounds.
"The fourth suicide bomber blew himself up when he saw there was no way for him to break through the police cordon," a senior security source said.
"At least 19 people including five policemen were injured when the fourth suicide bomber blew himself up," said a policeman at the scene. "He sneaked through the police cordon and then elbowed his way through a crowd of onlookers and journalists to move close to a cluster of policemen where he blew himself up."
Residents said police had cordoned off part of Fida and were trying to trace other suspects who had managed to escape. Police last month reportedly foiled a plot by Islamist militants to blow up foreign ships at the port of Casablanca, and other landmarks, including hotels in Marrakesh and Agadir. Police had arrested more than 40 people.
- REUTERS
