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Morocco charges band of `reserve' suicide bombers

Moroccan authorities said they had charged 16 men in connection with suicide bombings which killed dozens of people in Casablanca this month.

A group of seven men charged on Friday had been "directly involved" in the five almost simultaneous bombings on May 16, state prosecutor Moulay Abdellah Alaoui Belghiti said.

He suggested the group was a "reserve team" of suicide bombers, according to the official MAP news agency.

A group of six men were charged in Casablanca on Wednesday and three on Monday -- including two men whom the authorities say were assigned to targets but fled without detonating their bombs.

Thirty-one people were killed in the attacks as well as the 12 suicide bombers. The targets included a Spanish restaurant, the five-star Farah Hotel, and a Jewish community centre.

Belghiti said all the accused face the same charges which include formation of a criminal band, attacking the internal security of the state, and premeditated murder.

On Wednesday Belghiti said the alleged mastermind of the bombings, known as Abdelhaq or `Moul Sebbat', had died in custody, two days after he was arrested, from chronic heart and liver disease.

Moroccan authorities say the attacks were carried out by a small Islamic group, Assirat al-Moustaquim (The Righteous Path), based in a poor Casablanca neighborhood.

Government officials say the suicide bombers had links with international terrorism but say they will only give details once investigations are complete.

Meanwhile, a local official from Morocco's Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) was arrested under suspicion of having had prior knowledge of the deadly terror attacks, the interior ministry said Saturday.

The suspect, Younes Ousalah, is treasurer of a section of the PJD in Sidi Taiebi, an area considered to be an Islamic stronghold.
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