2007 Casablanca Bombings

In March and April 2007, Casablanca, Morocco, was the site of a series of suicide bombings linked to a broader Islamist militant plot targeting the city.

On March 11, 2007, a suicide bombing occurred inside an internet cafe in Casablanca. According to reporting, two men had been attempting to log into an extremist Islamist website when the cafe owner asked them to stop and later threatened to call police after they refused to leave. One of the two men, 23-year-old Abdelfattah Raydi, detonated an explosive device hidden under his clothing, killing himself and injuring his companion and three others, including the cafe owner. His companion, later identified as 18-year-old Youssef Khoudri, fled with an eye injury to a nearby hospital, where he was subsequently taken into custody by authorities. A local official, Mokhtar Bekkali Kacemi, Director of General Affairs of the Grand Casablanca, told media that the men were likely preparing for a separate attack and had sought online instructions to carry it out elsewhere. Moroccan newspaper Assabah reported that the intended targets had included Casablanca's police and paramilitary headquarters as well as tourist sites.

Following the March bombing, Moroccan authorities launched a major security operation against suspected Islamist militants. On April 10, 2007, this operation resulted in three suspected suicide bombers detonating their devices and a fourth being shot dead by police as he attempted to detonate his own device. One police officer was killed in one of the explosions. Officials stated that one of the three militants who died by self-detonation during the raid was the brother of the internet cafe bomber from the March attack.

A further two suicide bombings occurred on April 14, 2007, in Casablanca, near the United States consulate and its cultural centre. One female passer-by was injured in these blasts.

In October 2008, Morocco sentenced 45 people to prison terms ranging from 2 to 30 years for their roles in a plot to attack targets in Casablanca that was connected to the 2007 bombings.

This dossier is based on a Wikipedia summary of the events; two additional contemporaneous news sources (BBC News and Reuters) are cited as corroborating references but were not independently accessible for detailed fact verification in this draft.