MOROCCO’S INTERIOR MINISTER said today that initial results show that the bomb that killed 15 people in a square popular with foreigners was packed with nails and was set off via a remote control device.
While the Interpol, the international police agency, had called Thursday’s attack on a crowded tourist cafe in a historic Marrakech square a suspected suicide bombing, the minister Taieb Cherqaoui disputed this.
“This was not a suicide attack … and it appears the bomb was set of remotely,” Cherqaoui told a meeting of government commission in Rabat.
He said the bomb contained aluminum nitrate among other components.
Cherqaoui’s remarks were carried by the official MAP news agency.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement earlier that the death toll from Thursday’s bombing was 15, and that seven of the dead have been identified. More than 20 people were wounded. Most of those killed were foreigners.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for Morocco’s deadliest attack since 2003.
The powerful blast at the Argana cafe struck the heart of the central Moroccan city’s bustling old quarter, in Djemma el-Fna square, one of the top attractions in a country that depends heavily on tourism.
Government spokesman Khalid Naciri has told the AP it was too soon to lay blame, but he noted that that Morocco regularly dismantles cells linked to al-Qaida and has disrupted several plots.
- AP
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