Three suspected bombers killed in Casablanca

Three suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up yesterday following a police raid on a house in a Casablanca slum in which a fourth man was shot dead, police sources said.

The third man had been on the run since the dawn 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, the sources and witnesses said.

Police have been looking for up to 12 suspected suicide bombers since March 11 when the alleged leader of a suicide squad detonated his explosives belt in a cybercafe to stop police arresting him, the sources added.

They said they believed the bombers had started wearing the belts all the time to stop security forces taking them alive.

Residents said police had cordoned off part of Fida, a poor working-class suburb of Morocco's economic capital, and were trying to trace the third suspect who had managed to escape.

The MAP state news agency said one of two police officers injured when the third suspect blew himself up died from his wounds.

MAP identified the suspected third suicide bomber as 37-old Rachidi Mohamed and said he belonged to a "terrorist cell" behind the killing of paramilitary gendarme in 2003.

Hundreds of onlookers were near the house that was raided and a forensic investigation team sifted through debris after the first bomb blast.

Residents said bomb disposal officers were on hand in case the house was booby-trapped or explosives were stored there. Scuffles broke out briefly between news photographers and soldiers who stopped them getting closer to the house. Morocco has been on alert since 2003 when 13 suicide bombers killed themselves and 32 other people in central Casablanca in an attempt to punish Morocco for being a staunch ally of the United States in its "war on terror".

Zohra, who lived in the house next-door, said she had been awoken by gunfire early in the morning and heard a loud blast shortly afterwards.

She said neighbours told her a young man had blown himself up on the roof after police cornered him.

"He and three or four other young men moved into a flat in the building about two months ago," she told Reuters. "They aren't from around here. They kept themselves to themselves. They dressed normally, in jeans and trainers."

Abdellatif, 40 and unemployed, said he was with some friends when a police car screeched to a halt in front of them and officers dashed into a side street.

"A while later two guys ran out of a house with the police in pursuit," said Abdellatif. "The police officers ordered the men to stop and one of the men shot at them. The police shot back and he fell. The other got away."

Another resident who only identified himself as Mohammed, said the second man ran onto the roof terrace but police surrounded him. "That's when he blew himself up. The terrace was gutted and I saw body parts scattered around."

Security officials said last month police 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, most of them living in Casablanca's slums, they said.