French police conduct raid in search of Casablanca bombing suspects

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Posted: 4/6/04

PARIS (AP) - French police launched a dawn raid outside Paris on Monday, detaining 13 suspected militants in connection with a deadly terrorist attack in Morocco last year, authorities said.

The DST, France's domestic security agency, conducted the roundup of suspects in the suburbs of Paris on orders of two French anti-terrorism judges, Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Jean-Francois Ricard.

One person was detained at Charles de Gaulle airport as he tried to leave the country, Paris prosecutor Yves Bot said.

The operation was part of an investigation into near-simultaneous suicide attacks in Casablanca, Morocco, that killed 33 bystanders and 12 bombers on May 16, 2003, authorities said. Paris prosecutors opened an investigation three days after the attacks because three of the victims were French.