Morocco Restaurant Blast in Marrakesh Kills 14
Baku, April 29 (AZERTAC). A blast ripped through a restaurant in downtown Marrakech, Morocco, killing at least 17 people, al Arabiya television reported, citing an unidentified security official who said it was caused by a suicide bomber.
The attack yesterday, which injured about 20 people according to Karim Taj, chief of staff for the North African nation`s communications minister, hit the Argana Restaurant in the Djemma el-Fna square, a popular tourist destination. Six French nationals were among the dead, Al Arabiya television said, without saying where it got the information.
“Killing innocent people in this way could be nothing but an act of terror,” Taj said in an interview yesterday.
The attack was the deadliest in Morocco since 2003, when suicide bombers simultaneously struck five sites in Casablanca, killing more than 40 people and wounding at least 100. It struck at the heart of Morocco`s tourism industry, which accounts for almost 10 percent of gross domestic product. Revenue from tourism was the biggest foreign-currency earner last year, drawing 56.6 billion dirhams ($7 billion).
“Acts of terrorism must not be tolerated wherever and whenever they occur,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement released in Washington last night. French President Nicolas Sarkozy also condemned the act of terrorism, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his “firm rejection of the use of indiscriminate violence against innocent civilians.”
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