Thirty-nine people were killed and scores injured in suicide bombings in Morocco's biggest city Casablanca hours after the United States warned al Qaeda was poised to strike again.
A Jewish centre and a Spanish club were among the targets of Friday night's second major attack within a week on an Arab kingdom with historically close ties to the US. Saudi Arabia was hit by multiple suicide bombings on Monday.
"International terrorism struck Casablanca tonight," Moroccan Interior Minister Al Mustapha Sahel was quoted as saying by 2M television yesterday.
Suicide bombers carried out five attacks and as many as 10 of the dead may have been assailants, he was quoted as saying by the official MAP news agency.
Sahel told reporters 39 people were killed and 65 wounded - 17 of them seriously. Diplomatic sources had said earlier at least 40 people were killed and 100 wounded.
Two Spaniards were killed and three hurt, one seriously. An Italian was also killed in the Spanish club blast, Italy's Foreign Ministry said.
Two policemen were killed outside Belgium's consulate, which took the brunt of a blast apparently aimed at a Jewish-owned restaurant opposite.
The blasts came hours after US President George W. Bush warned of "killers on the loose" as terror alerts spread around the world after the bombings in the Saudi capital Riyadh, which killed 34 people including eight Americans.
Yesterday, he warned in a radio address of possible new attacks from al Qaeda, which he said was weakened but "not idle" after US military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda was the top suspect in Casablanca, as in Riyadh. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned then that the war on the Arab state would produce "one hundred new bin Ladens".
Morocco and Saudi Arabia, bin Laden's birthplace, were among Muslim states listed as "most eligible for liberation" in a tape purportedly by the al Qaeda leader and broadcast in February.
Some of the Casablanca targets had Jewish connections and one was linked to Spain, which strongly backed the war on Iraq.
Sahel said the bombers struck the Hotel Farah - also known by its former name the Hotel Safir - in the old city, a Jewish community centre, a Jewish-owned Italian restaurant and the Casa de Espana social club.
A bomb seemingly destined for an old Jewish cemetery appeared to have gone off early, before the other blasts at around midnight on Friday.
Local journalists said the bulk of the dead were at the club, popular with Spanish business people and diplomats. "The doorman, poor thing, they cut his head off, like this, with a big knife... then they left one, two bombs," the secretary of the Casa de Espana club told Spanish radio.
"Tables turned upside down, everybody was bleeding, some were on the ground, others without head, without arms, it was horrible," said Rafael Bermudez, 58, president of the club.
In recent days, the US and Britain had issued warnings of possible attacks in Kenya and other African countries but not Morocco, suggesting the choice of that country as a target had caught Western intelligence by surprise.
The latest bombings shattered Morocco's image of a relatively stable country and safe tourist destination. Rabat and Washington are currently negotiating a free trade agreement.
The Hotel Farah security chief said two assailants burst in and were stopped by staff. "One of them stabbed one of my agents with a knife, the other agent tried to get hold of the second attacker and that's when he blew himself up."
Sahel, quoted by MAP, said three Moroccans had been arrested - one of them a suspected bomber who was wounded.
Millions of young migrants from rural poverty struggle to make their way in Casablanca's teeming suburbs that have become recruiting grounds for radical Islamic militants.
Moroccans had been enjoying a holiday weekend and were still celebrating last week's birth of King Mohammed's son and heir.
Casablanca, on the Atlantic about 95 km southwest of the capital Rabat, has one of the world's biggest mosques and was immortalised in the 1942 Hollywood film of the same name.