CASABLANCA - An operation Tuesday by Moroccan police to track down a suicide bombers' cell in the port city of Casablanca ended after three of the bombers blew themselves up and a fourth was shot dead.
A dawn operation in the el Fida district led to the first confrontation in the small hours of the morning, in which two suspects died. One was shot dead by the police and the other blew himself up.
Later in the afternoon, a police inspector died after a third man blew himself up in the same district. Two other police officers and a child were also hurt, an AFP journalist saw.
Later Tuesday, a fourth suspect blew himself up in a crowd, said a police source.
"It was the fourth member of the group police were looking for," said the source.
In the first operation, Moroccan police found the suspects after surrounding a house as part of an operation to find suspects in the March 11 bomb attack on an Internet cafe.
At around 5:00 am (0500 GMT) one of the suspects had come out of the house armed with a sabre and wearing a belt of explosives.
"The police fired a warning shot, which he failed to obey. They then fired a second shot before he could activate the explosives he was carrying," said an officer.
The second suspect came onto the balcony after hearing the shots. Seeing the house surrounded, he blew himself up.
The area was sealed off as police staged a door-to-door search for a third suspect who fled, said the officer, who declined to be identified.
The second incident later Tuesday happened just 150 metres (yards) from the spot of the first explosion, as police were continuing their door-to-door search of the district.
A police statement identified the man they had shot dead in the morning as Mohamed Mentala, alias Warda.
"The suicide bomber who killed himself in the morning is called Mohamed Rachidi," the police statement added.
Mentala was wanted in connection with the May 2003 bombings in Casablanca, the worst in Morocco's history, which killed 45 people including 12 suicide bombers, and leaving dozens injured.
Police have not yet released the name of the fourth man, the third suspect who blew himself up.
But the other three men were wanted in connection with the March 11 attack on an Internet cafe, said police.
The apartment where the two men were cornered early Tuesday had been rented two months earlier by Rachidi, the owner told AFP.
In the attack on the Internet cafe, the bomber, Abdelfettah Raydi, died and his suspected accomplice and three customers were injured. Thirty-one people have already been arrested in the course of that investigation.
Investigators believe that the Internet cafe was not the intended target of the March attack, but was simply where some of the attackers met to maintain contact online, a source told AFP.
Investigators have ruled out that the men had links with foreign groups.
"A terrorist group is being formed and funded by Moroccans with the aim of carrying out bombings at Casablanca port and several police stations," the source added.
But Mohamed Darif, a specialist on Islamism in Morocco, told AFP: "It is difficult to imagine that this group did not have any foreign links.
"On the contrary, it seems that they apply the order given by Ayman al Zawahri, the number two in Al-Qaeda, to blow yourself up rather than fall into the hands of the police," he added.
Al-Qaeda recently announced that it had set up a cell in north Africa.
Mohamed Tozi, a professor of political science and sociology at Casablanca's Hassan II University, said although Islamic extremists were ready for suicide attacks there was a "great weakness in organisation and logistics."
"This is worrying and reassuring at the same time," he said. "Worrying because they can improve upon their structures and become very dangerous and reassuring because they are finding it difficult to merge into society and hide themselves."
04/10/2007 19:45 GMT