CASABLANCA - Moroccan security forces hunted for 10 possible suicide bombers on Wednesday, a day after three militants blew themselves up in Casablanca as they were chased by police.
"We are searching Casablanca for about 10 extremely dangerous terrorists, as they are ready like those yesterday to blow themselves up," police said as they released the identities of those who died on Tuesday.
King Mohamed VI said that he deeply believed "the fight against terrorism and its followers is the concern of all."
Moroccans are "deeply attached to their society and their homeland in the face of extremism, terrorism and all that which by nature threatens their faith..." he said in a message.
A huge banner unfurled early Wednesday near the site of the explosions read "Hands off my country, Morocco".
Tuesday's drama began with one man being shot by police as they surrounded a house before dawn in the el Fida district of the city. The man, identified as Mohamed Mentala, came out of the house carrying a sword and wearing an explosives belt.
Police fired at him twice, preventing him setting off the explosives. He died later of his wounds.
Police said a second suspect came onto the balcony of the house and seeing that he was surrounded, blew himself up.
The same 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.
In the final attack five people were wounded, including two police officers, as a man blew himself up in the main street of the Hay al Farah district.
All four militants involved in Tuesday's incidents were being sought by police in connection with an explosion in a Casablanca Internet cafe on March 11.
They were identified as Mohamed Rachidi, Ayoub Raidy, Said Belouad and Mentala.
There was universal condemnation of the bombers in the Moroccan press. One daily, Aujourd'hui le Maroc, said the events amounted to a "world war" while another, the Economiste, blamed a copy-cat mentality and satellite television.
"Satellite television exposes the poorest in our towns to what's happening on the other side of the planet and to events in the Middle East and this can lead to some copying tragic examples," the paper said.
A judicial source said a "terrorist group is being formed and funded by Moroccans with the aim of carrying out bombings at Casablanca port and several police stations".
But Mohamed Darif, a specialist on Islamism in Morocco, told AFP that he found it "hard 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 said.
Al-Qaeda recently announced that it had set up a cell in north Africa.
04/11/2007 15:22 GMT