2003 Casablanca bombings

The 2003 Casablanca bombings, commonly known as May 16 (, ), were a series of coordinated suicide bombings on May 16, 2003, in Casablanca, Morocco. Twelve suicide bombers loyal to the Salafia Jihadia organization detonated bombs hidden in backpacks in the Casa de España restaurant, the , the Jewish Alliance of Casablanca, and sites near the Belgian consulate and an old Jewish cemetery. The attacks, which were later claimed by al-Qaeda, were the deadliest terrorist attacks in Morocco's history, claiming the lives of forty-five people (33 victims and 12 suicide bombers) and injuring at least 100. Despite deliberately targeting Jews, none of the victims were Jews as the attack occurred during Shabbat.

Out of the initial commando of fifteen, three abandoned their plans on the spot and were later arrested. The attacks came in a rise in radical preachers critical of the Moroccan government, which they had viewed as infidels; many of the preachers were veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war.

The interrogation of the surviving suicide bombers led to the terrorist cell's ringleader, Abdelhak Bentassir, who had demanded that members of the cell make an oath of allegiance towards him after following a radical preacher. Bentassir later died in police custody in unclear circumstances. Authorities led a judicial purge of Islamists in the country, with indictments filed against 2,112 extremists leading to 903 convictions and 12 death sentences.

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, a tough counter-terrorism bill was signed which was compared to the Patriot Act. The attacks shined light on the state of shantytowns in the country, with a government initiative fighting against slums being announced the following year. The slums of Sidi Moumen were fully demolished after a series of attacks in 2007.

Background and planning

Radical Islam in Morocco

thumb|267x267px|Al-Qaeda ideologue [[Abu Qatada al-Filistini|Abu Qatada, pictured during his 2013 deportation from the United Kingdom, was reportedly involved in the creation of the GICM.]]

Throughout modern Moroccan history, radical Islamist violence has been relatively unprecedented. There have been rare exceptions such as the 1975 assassination of Omar Benjelloun by loyalists to Islamist guru Abdelkrim Motiî. Despite this, radical Islamists were largely forced to be peaceful following the assassination due to crackdowns on groups such as Shabiba Islamiya under King Hassan II's Years of Lead.

In a bid to expand to Morocco, the LIFG created the Moroccan Islamic Movement (HASM) and published two issues of a fanzine titled Sada al-Maghrib () which was distributed in Denmark, Italy, and Belgium. In 1997, the HASM turned into Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM) and published nine press releases in al-Ansar, the media branch of the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA). A year later, al-Libi sent a Libyan representative to Morocco to see if Moroccan society was "ready". Moroccan authorities blamed the attacks on the Algerian Department of Intelligence and Security (DRS), leading to Morocco closing its borders with Algeria. The mastermind of the attacks, Abdellilah Ziyad, had been living in France illegally at the time, and was sentenced to eight years in prison for his role by a French court in 1997. In 2021, Ziyad was deported by France in 2021 to face charges in Morocco.

In early 2001, after the representative's departure, Osama bin Laden ordered al-Libi to transfer all remaining high-ranking Moroccan members of the LIFG to the GICM as the GICM was al-Qaeda's official relay in Morocco. A training camp for the GICM was opened in Bagram as well as a guest house for GICM members in Kabul ran by Saâd Houssaïni. Following the Battle of Tora Bora in the immediate aftermath of September 11 attacks, most members of the GICM in Afghanistan returned to Morocco, including future radical preachers who would have an ideological impact on the Casablanca attackers. Members of the GICM who had returned from Afghanistan were dubbed as "the Afghans" by the DST. They were sentenced to ten years in prison in February 2003.

Salafia Jihadia and as-Sirat al-Mustaqim

The exodus of Moroccan veterans from Afghanistan led to a wave of radical preachers in the country, who mainly gave classes regarding jihad and wrote books about the supposed "godless" nature of the Moroccan state and how fighting would be lawful under Islamic law. In some cases, the preachers made small booklets for followers with a primary level of education. Some followers, inspired by these classes, declared themselves "emirs" and garnered a small following willing to pledge allegiance to them. In February 2002, drug dealer Fouad Kerdoudi was stoned to death in Sidi Moumen by as-Sirat al-Mustaqim after Miloudi issued a fatwa advocating for his murder. Miloudi was arrested a month later and sentenced to a year in prison. During a police raid, documents were found showing that Miloudi was planning to set up urban guerrilla centers in Casablanca modeled after the focos. Fikri's group, known as Jamaât as-Sirat al-Mustaqim (), were named by the authorities under the umbrella title of Salafia Jihadia. Fikri, alongside around thirty co-conspirators, oversaw a killing spree of six murders and 154 assaults throughout the country, mainly against prostitutes. Fikri's second-in-command, Mohamed Damir, was a prominent figure in the neighborhood and was seen as a social leader.

Salafia Jihadia also perpetrated carjackings and robberies, robbing an electric utility office in 2001 as well as burglaries of villas in Ain Diab. In October 1998, Fikri murdered his uncle, Abdelaziz Fikri, in Youssoufia for having allegedly cheated on his wife. Fikri continued assaulting civilians in Casablanca.

In 1999, two members of Salafia Jihadia and friends of Fikri murdered their roommate, identified by authorities with his first name of Mohamed, in Nador. Fikri was reportedly motivated by Mohamed's "Marxist tendencies" and his alleged blasphemy. On September 10, 2001, three members of Salafia Jihadia encountered notary Abdelaziz Assadi alongside three women in Nador. The group pretended to be policemen before Assadi pretended to be the King's prosecutor, upon learning of this, they held Assadi and the three women hostage before murdering Assadi and dumping his body in a well.

Fikri was arrested in Nador in January 2002. He admitted to all six murders as well as the assaults, and his confessions led to arrest warrants being issued against five Moroccans who had fought in Afghanistan. In October 2002, an arrest warrant was served against Mohamed Damir in Hay Mohammadi when Rabiî Aït Ouzzou, Damir's brother-in-law, plunged a sword in a police officer before being shot nine times and dying of his injuries. Upon learning of Fikri's cell, then-Director of Territorial Surveillance Hamidou Laânigri reportedly declared that "Salafia Jihadia is our GIA". He was a member of the largely pacifist and apolitical Tablighi Jamaat movement. In 1996, Omari met radical preacher Zakaria Miloudi and joined as-Sirat al-Mustaqim after attending his lectures. Miloudi held lectures where he notably called every Moroccan with a birth certificate or identity card apostates. Miloudi once described Parliament as a "gathering of apostates and atheists". Miloudi and Omari later had a falling out after Omari embezzled funds collected for the construction of a mosque.

Houssaïni is believed to have given a detailed instruction manual to Bentassir, who gave it to Boulikdane. Boulikdane was in charge of making the explosives with Omari, with Boulikdane obtaining gunpowder while Omari provided lab equipment. The manual given to Bentassir lacks information on making a long-distance fuze, despite El Mejjati and Houssaïni knowing how to detonate a charge remotely. Investigators theorize that this was purposefully omitted by El Mejjati and Houssaïni, who "wanted a kamikaze operation, spectacular and absolutely horrific to mark the spirit". He was radicalized by preacher Abderrazak Rtioui, a member of as-Sirat al-Mustaqim in a nearby slum. Jalil took a pledge of allegiance to Bentassir and trained the group in martial arts every summer in the forest of Oued Mellah.

On May 14, the group settled at Omari's house with M'hanni preparing the homemade explosives. The attack occurred on the 47th anniversary of Morocco's national police force, two days after Aid al-Mawlid, and a week after the birth of Crown Prince Moulay Hassan. The twelve suicide bombers were all from of the Sidi Moumen slums, including nine from the Carrière Thomas district, with an average age of 25, and many had never pursued higher education.

Bombings

Attacks

thumb|244x244px|The suicide bombers targeted the Casa de España restaurant (sign pictured), where twenty-two people died.On May 16, 2003 at 8:45 p.m., the Casa de España restaurant was targeted by four suicide bombers during a bingo session organized at the restaurants. A security guard attempted to stop the group before one of the suicide bombers pulled out a knife and slit the guard's throat. Once inside the restaurant, the attackers yelled "Allah Akbar" three times while one of the suicide bombers threw a hand-made grenade under a table. Two of the suicide bombers positioned themselves about fifteen meters from one another and simultaneously triggered their bombs. Boulikdane rushed his way into the hotel's bar before detonating his vest, killing the security guard, 44-year-old Hassan Karib, and a porter, 48-year-old Ahmed Atef. Omari claimed to have abandoned his plans after "noticing that there were no Jews inside of the hotel", something that he would have not been able to distinguish. Investigators suggested that Omari had already discarded his bomb and was about to escape before getting injured by the blast. Taoussi took a bus to Oujda and failed to cross the Algeria–Morocco border, he later hid at a family member's home in Berrechid where he was arrested nine days later.

He was accompanied by 28-year-old Rachid Jalil, who dropped his backpack with a bomb between two cars and walked away. Jalil was told by police officers that Belcaïd turned into a panic after realizing that he had abandoned from the plot, with Belcaïd detonating his bomb while two people were attempting to take his backpack away.

Victims

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More than 100 people were injured, 14 of which with life-threatening injuries; at least 97 of injured were Muslims. Nine of the dead were Europeans while the rest were Moroccan, one of the victims was a French-Moroccan. Raja AC gave an apartment in Casablanca to Beggar's family following his death. Raja AC's historical rival in the Casablanca derby, the Wydad AC, offered 10 percent of the profits from their following football match. Lawyer Abdelouahed El Khammal and his son, Taïb, died in the attacks. El Khammal's widow, Soad Begdouri El Khammal, founded the Moroccan Association for Victims of Terrorism (AMVT) in 2011.

Investigation and trials

thumb|General [[Hamidou Laanigri|Hamidou Laânigri, then-Director of Territorial Surveillance, led the investigation into the attacks]]

The investigation into the attacks was led by the General Directorate for National Security's National Judicial Police Brigade (BNPJ), the Royal Gendarmerie, and the Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DST) under the leadership of Hamidou Laânigri. The attacks led to a vast investigation being carried out into radical Islamist circles. In the investigation into the attacks, more than 5,200 suspects were arrested and authorities questioned around 11,000 people. An arrest warrant had been issued by Moroccan authorities for Cherkaoui in connection with the Casablanca attacks, which he denied.

Investigators determined that the terror cell was part of Salafia Jihadia organization, a term used by Moroccan government to refer to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), an al-Qaeda allied group. Saad bin Laden was suspected of direct involvement in the bombings despite being under house arrest in Iran. On June 21, al-Qaeda officially claimed responsibility for the Casablanca and Riyadh attacks through a video.

Forty-five bodies, including nine from the Aïn Chock communal morgue, were taken to the CHU Ibn Rochd hospital for identification and autopsy. The task was entrusted to nine members of the hospital's Forensic Medicine Institute, who were under time pressure, as Islamic custom requires burial at sunrise the day after death. Twenty-four of the bodies were identified by May 17, with a crisis cell being set-up within the Institute for families.

The BNPJ wrote identification reports for each body held at the hospital while communal officials issued burial permits on the spot upon identification, the Institute mobilized an imam to perform ritual ablution on the deceased. Five more bodies were identified by next Sunday. Investigators told The Washington Post that Bentassir died of heart and liver failure after three days of near non-stop interrogation. His widow, Amina Mourabiti, claimed in 2013 that authorities refused to issue a death certificate for Bentassir.

A day after Bentassir's death, King Mohammed VI broke his silence about the attacks and delivered a speech warning that those who "hurt the security of the state" would suffer "stiff consequences", declaring that the "era of lax management" was over. Regarding accusations of torture, Moroccan justice minister Mohammed Bouzoubaa stated that he "can't say that there were absolutely no lapses in judgement, but what I do deny is that they were widespread".

On June 4, 2003, French citizen Richard Antoine Pierre Robert, who was in the wanted list and was known in the press as the "blue-eyed emir", was arrested. Richard Robert admitted in an interview to have participated in a plot to establish an Islamic state in the Rif mountains of Northern Morocco. Robert built a mosque with radical preacher Mohamed Fizazi with money obtained from drug trafficking.

In July 2003, four members of Salafia Jihadia kidnapped and stabbed gendarme Mohamed Hamdi to death in Sidi Bernoussi. On September 11, 2003, Moroccan Jew Albert Rebibo was shot to death in Casablanca by Taoufik El Hanouichi, who had been on the wanted list in connection with the attacks. He was arrested by the GIGR in January 2004 after being shot in the leg.

On May 1, 2004, Abdelmalek Bouzgarne was arrested alongside two suspects during a raid in Hay Hassani. The three suspects had rushed towards the police with machetes while screaming "For Martyrdom!" prior to being shot in the legs and tackled by police officers. He was a loyalist of Youssef Fikri and a member of Salafia Jihadia who had been on the wanted list in connection with the attacks. Authorities found evidence of murders dating from the late 1990s in Bouzargane's hideout. On March 19, 2004, Belgian police arrested a suspect wanted by the Moroccan government in connection with the bombings.

On March 7, 2007, bomb-maker Saâd Houssaïni, who was also on the list, was arrested by the GIGR in a cybercafé near Sidi Maârouf after the DST tracked a GSM packet for a phone number belonging to Houssaini to the cybercafé.

Trials

thumb|Radical preacher was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his ideological influence on the attackers. He received a pardon from the King in 2011.

The attacks led to a judicial purge against Salafia Jihadia, with Minister of Justice Mohamed Bouzoubaa announcing in 2004 that 2,112 indictments were filed against extremists leading to 903 convictions and 13 death sentences. Authorities also filed arrest warrants against 50 Moroccans and 12 foreign citizens. Omari, Jalil, Lahnech and Hassan Taoussi, were charged alongside fifty-two defendants for "forming a criminal association, undermining the internal security of the state, sabotage, premeditated homicide and damage causing injury and permanent disability".

In July 2003, Youssef Fikri, the leader of Salafia Jihadia, was tried alongside thirty-one members of his network for his involvement other terrorist attacks in 2001 as well as his supposed ideological influence on the attackers. During his trial, Fikri admitted that "yes, I admit to killing several of God's enemies, and this trial is nothing more than a play". Fikri was sentenced to death alongside ten other co-conspirators. Among those sentenced to death was the group's second-in-command, Mohammd Damir, who was reported as having disappeared until his trial.

On July 21, 2003, the trial for the attacks began at the criminal chamber of the Court of Appeal of Casablanca, who had issued an indictment against fifty-two people. Upon questioning by the prosecutor, Omari defended his role in the attacks by saying they were "to highlight social inequality". Omari denied that Salafia Jihadia existed and claimed it was "an invention of the newspapers", rather claiming that the attackers belonged to a group named "Ahl al-Kitab wal Sunnah" ().

The court also sentenced radical preachers said to have had an ideological influence on the attackers, charging them with "offences against the internal security of the state, criminal conspiracy, sabotage and incitement to violence".

On February 26, 2009, Saâd Houssaïni was sentenced to 15 years in prison for "undermining the internal security of the state, forming a criminal gang to prepare and commit terrorist acts as part of a collective plan to cause serious damage to public order, collecting and managing funds, inciting others to commit terrorist acts and organising public meetings without authorisation". Karim El Mejjati was given a 20-year sentence in absentia.

In 2007, a French court sentenced French-Moroccans Fouad Charouali, Rachid Aït El Hadj, Bachir Ghoumid, Redouane Aberbri, and French Turk Attila Türk to prison sentences ranging from six to eight years for their material support to the Casablanca terrorist cell. In 2012, Charouali was arrested in Munich under an international arrest warrant issued by Moroccan authorities in connection with the attacks before being deported to France. In 2016, nine years after their conviction, they were stripped of their French citizenship and are facing deportation. In 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in favor of the French government, ruling that "terrorist violence constituted in itself a serious threat to human rights".

In 2009, Hassan El Haski was acquitted of charges relating to the attacks by an anti-terrorism court in Salé. After an appeal, El Haski was sentenced to ten years in prison and was sent to Spain to serve the remainder of his fourteen-year sentence in connection with the Madrid train bombings. In 2019, El Haski was deported to Morocco after serving his sentence in Spain.

In 2020, Saïd Mansour was sentenced to death by the Court of Appeal of Casablanca in connection with the attacks. He was stripped of his Danish citizenship in 2015, becoming the first person in Denmark to lose Danish citizenship, and was extradited to Morocco in 2019. Danish authorities assured that they had engaged in negotiations to avoid Mansour's execution. In 2021, Mansour's sentence was commuted to 25 years in prison.

Aftermath

thumb|The [[King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, pictured in 2004|284x284px]]

The attacks were the deadliest terrorist attacks in Morocco's history. The attacks immediately set a climate described as mass psychosis throughout Casablanca and a shell-shock effect across the country, with car crashes multiplying in the city in the following days. The attacks came four days after Riyadh compound bombings and was condemned by numerous world leaders. In response to the Riyadh and Casablanca attacks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security raised its terror threat level to Orange.

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the House of Councillors voted on May 28, 2003, in favor of law no. 03–03 on the fight against terrorism, which had been criticized for its broadening of the term "terrorism" and has been compared to the Patriot Act. Families of victims were given a compensation of 500,000 dirham from the government.

On June 28, Hamidou Laânigri, then-Director for Territorial Surveillance, was demoted to Director-General of National Security.

In a speech made after the law was voted for, King Mohammed VI proclaimed in a speech that the attacks were "contrary to our tolerant and generous faith" and that "those who ordered it and those who carried it out are despicable villains who can in no way claim to be Moroccans or authentic Muslims, so ignorant are they of the tolerance that characterizes this religion". The King toured the bombing sites and was cheered by crowds of people.

The attacks led to increased pressure on the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), who were blamed by civil society for the attacks.

On April 24, 2004, King Mohammed VI and then-Prime Minister of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero inaugurated a commemorative plaque at Mohammed V Square in central Casablanca. The plaque was inscribed with a verse from the Quran: "if anyone kills a person, it would be as if he killed the entirety of mankind" ().

The attacks shined light at the deplorable state of shantytowns in the country, with authorities launching the "Cities without slums" () initiative the next year and the King announcing the National Human Development Initiative (INDH) in 2005.

On August 13, 2007, a civil engineer working for the Ministry of Finance detonated a gas cylinder hidden in his backpack a few meters from a tourist bus. The engineer, Hicham Doukkali, survived the blast which occurred on his 30th birthday and ripped off his left hand, broke his right leg and tore his abdomen and chest. According to authorities, he was a member of a violent offshoot of Al Adl Wal Ihsane. Doukklai was sentenced to life in prison in 2008.

In April 2008, nine prisoners motivated by "injustice" and imprisoned for their role in the attacks escaped from Kenitra central prison during the night by digging a 22 meter long tunnel under the prison. One of the prisoners, Abdelhadi Eddahbi, was on death row for his involvement with Youssef Fikri's network, six were sentenced to life imprisonment and two to 20 years. The prisoners were captured in June and were given sentences ranging from 18 months to 10 years in prison.

In February 2011, Mohamed Fizazi, who was serving a sentence for his ideological influence on the attackers, was pardoned by King Mohammed VI. In February 2012, three more preachers imprisoned on the same charge, Abdelouahab Rafiqui, Hassan Kettani, and Omar Haddouchi, were pardoned by the King. As a sign of reconciliation, the King attended Friday prayers led by Fizazi in 2014. In 2011, the second-in-command of Salafia Jihadia, Mohamed Damir, had his sentence commuted to thirty years in prison.

In 2017, the government announced a program titled "Moussalaha" (), where prisoners sentenced on terror charges could be eligible for a royal pardon after being rehabilitated. In 2021, one of the prisoners who escaped from Kenitra central prison in 2008, Mohamed Chatbi, was pardoned by the King on compassionate grounds based on "medical problems".

References

External links

Analysis: Casablanca bombings (PDF)
ERRI Briefing with description of attack
Terror blasts rock Casablanca – BBC
Moroccans march against terror - BBC