Morocco rocked by bombings

An operation on Tuesday by Moroccan police to track down a suicide bombers' cell in the port city of Casablanca ended after three of the bombers blew themselves up and a fourth was shot dead.

A dawn operation in the el Fida district led to the first confrontation in the small hours of the morning and resulted in one suspect being shot dead by police and the other blowing himself up.

Later in the 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.

Later on Tuesday, a fourth suspect blew himself up in a crowd, a police source said.

"It was the fourth member of the group police were looking for," the source said.

In the first operation, Moroccan police found the suspects after surrounding a house as part of an operation to find suspects in the March 11 bomb attack on an Internet cafe.

At around 5am, one of the suspects emerged from the house armed with a sword and wearing a belt of explosives.

"The police fired a warning shot, which he failed to obey," said an officer who declined to be identified. "They then fired a second shot before he could activate the explosives he was carrying."

The second suspect came out onto the balcony of the house after hearing the shots. After seeing the house was surrounded, he blew himself up.

The area was sealed off as police staged a door-to-door search for a third suspect who fled, the officer said.

The second incident on Tuesday happened just 150m from the site of the first explosion as police were continuing their door-to-door search of the district.

"He jumped down from a balcony, detonating his charge," a police source said.

In the last attack on Tuesday, five were wounded, including two police officers, as a man blew himself up on the main thoroughfare of the Hay al-Farah district.

The bomber headed towards a group of police officers before detonating his charge, a police source said.

Police identified the man they shot dead in the morning as Mohamed Mentala.

"The suicide bomber who killed himself in the morning is called Mohamed Rachidi," the police statement said of the other victim.