MOROCCO: Moroccan authorities were fairly certain yesterday that the al-Qaeda network was behind the bloody spate of suicide bombings that hit Jewish and international targets in Casablanca, and were striving to confirm the link.
The five nearly simultaneous attacks Friday evening on Jewish and foreign targets bore the hallmarks of Osama bin Laden's organisation, but Communications Minister, Mr Nabil Benabdellah, said that "concrete proof" of the link remained elusive.
"To say right now that al-Qaeda is behind these attacks would be to state things of which we are still not altogether certain," he told French radio yesterday. "We will be affirmative on these questions as soon as we have concrete proof," he said.
The synchronised blood-letting in the north African country's economic capital came four days after a triple suicide bombing in Riyadh and amid fears that a resurgent al-Qaeda was planning fresh strikes in the wake of the US-led war on Iraq.
Police have arrested more than 30 suspects after the deadly attacks in which 28 civilians were killed including six foreigners - three French nationals, two Spaniards and an Italian.
A joint funeral was held yesterday for Frenchmen Joseph Simon Maurel (80), and Emile Nacinovic (65), at Casablanca's main cathedral, which was packed with some 500 mourners mainly from the city's 15,000-strong French community.