Casablanca blasts target U.S. interests

BERLIN — Suicide bombers struck in North Africa on Saturday for the third time in a week, targeting the U.S. consulate and an American cultural center in the Moroccan port city of Casablanca. U.S. officials warned that more terrorist attacks in the region could be imminent, describing specific plots in Algeria.

In Casablanca, two brothers wearing belts packed with explosives blew themselves up within moments of each other outside the consulate and the American Language Center, a privately run school and cultural center on the same street, several blocks away. The only other casualty was a bystander who was slightly injured.

Security concerns across North Africa have escalated since Tuesday, when three suicide bombers from the same cell in Casablanca blew themselves up after a confrontation with police. The following day, in neighboring Algeria, 33 people were killed when car bombers attacked the Government Palace in the capital, Algiers, and a suburban police station.

Both countries are bracing for further violence. In Algiers, the U.S. Embassy issued a public warning early Saturday that the Algerian state television headquarters and the central post office in Algiers were possibly being targeted for attack. Last month, the embassy issued a warning of threats to commercial airliners carrying Westerners who work in Algeria's oil and gas fields.

Counterterrorism officials in Algeria and Morocco said there is no evidence to connect last week's attacks in Casablanca and Algiers, but they have not ruled out a link. No organized group has claimed responsibility for the Casablanca suicide bombings. The operations in Algeria were carried out by the group al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a regional affiliate of Osama bin Laden's global network that analysts said is trying to coordinate local cells across North Africa.

"These groups are working together, and the level of organization has changed completely," said Isabelle Werenfels, a North Africa expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. "This is starting to look like a real campaign."

Saturday's bombings in Casablanca were the first terrorist attacks on a U.S. target in Morocco, a moderate Muslim nation and longtime ally of the United States. Moroccan and U.S. counterterrorism officials have been warning of an increased threat there since May 16, 2003, when 33 people were killed by a dozen suicide bombers in Casablanca.

Moroccan authorities identified the brothers who blew themselves up Saturday as Mohamed Maha, 32, and Omar Maha, 23, both of Casablanca.

Later Saturday, police arrested three suspects in the vicinity of the U.S. consulate, including one who was carrying explosives.