Foreign connection found in Casablanca attacks, justice minister

Authors of the terrorist attacks perpetrated last May 16 in Casablanca have "connections with several terrorist organizations abroad and with several financiers of international terrorism," Moroccan Justice Minister, Mohamed Bouzoubaa, said on Thursday.

Persons came from abroad where they trained several elements to commit terrorist attacks, Bouzoubaa told Morocco's first TV channel (TVM).

According to the minister, terrorism financiers have sent funds from abroad to individuals involved in the Casablanca attacks that claimed 44 victims.

Scores of people were arrested in connection with the attacks and over 100 suspects have already appeared before Moroccan courts.

Investigation into the attacks are close to an end, said Bouzoubaa, who added that investigations showed that two major groups are involved in the attacks, one led by a Moroccan and the second by French Pierre Robert, arrested recently.

Meantime, Hassan Boulaid, a security agent, died Thursday at a Casablanca hospital of injuries sustained in the terrorist attacks that hit Casablanca last May 16.

With the death of Boulaid, married and father of a 7-year-old daughter, the death toll of the terrorist attacks reaches 44, including the suicide bombers.

He used to work in the Farah hotel, one of the targets of the string of five quasi-simultaneous terrorist attacks perpetrated in Casablanca.