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| Carnage in Casablanca |
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Morocco wanted to think terror attacks happen elsewhere. Five lethal bombs changed that forever |
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By BRUCE CRUMLEY | Casablanca |
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Posted Sunday, May 18, 2003; 13.05BST
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DENNIS DOYLE/AP
| TERROR NIGHT:
The Casa de Espana terrace was razed by bombs |
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The view from the rooftop terrace of the Saint François parish house in downtown Casablanca was a nightmare in freeze-frame. On the patio below, scores of wooden chairs and tables lay strewn in charred disarray after a pleasant evening of paella and bingo turned into chaos and death. The Casa de Espana social club shuddered under a wave of shock and awe Friday night, when suicide bombers stormed the building, blowing themselves and innocent diners to bits in what turned out to be the most deadly of five kamikaze attacks in the Moroccan city.
The well-planned, tightly synchronized attacks unfolded over a period of roughly 20 minutes, and were confined to a relatively small area of central Casablanca. At the Casa de Espana, a pair of attackers overpowered and slit the throat of the doorman to gain access to the social club and detonate their charges among the diner-packed patio. "It was as though they just dropped from a window or something — at one moment, they weren't there, and the next, they were the center of all this fire and blood," whispered Casa de Espana social club president Rafael Bermúdez outside the building less than 24 hours after the attacks.
By Saturday night the city's death toll was put at 41 but expected to rise. According to a Moroccan government source, the majority of the dead were Moroccan citizens — an urgent reminder that Islamic terrorism does not spare practicing Muslims from its deadly venom. Officials say all five strikes were carried out by a total of 10 kamikaze bombers who sought to exploit overlapping national, religious and school holidays luring festive Casablancans out into the night to maximize carnage. Less than a five-minute walk away from the Casa de Espana, a trio of attackers tried to push their way into the lobby of the five-star Hotel Farah on the Avenue de l'Armeé Royale. According to staff members recounting events as hunks of ceiling plaster still dropped around them, a couple of 20ish youths got in a dispute with doormen. When one doorman tried to prevent the youths from entering, he was stabbed by an attacker, who then detonated his bomb on the now-pulverized granite steps — killing another doorman who had tackled the intruder.
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