BREAKING NEWS: 40 Killed As Anti Jewish Violence Rocks Morocco

were killed when suicide bombers attacked a Jewish community center and at least four other mainly Jewish targets in Morocco’s biggest city Casablanca, officials said.

Eye-witnesses said the single-storey Jewish centre was badly damaged, with blood stains visible on the facade. The Reuters news agency said Israel’s Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Israel radio: "Terrorism is a world-wide problem. This shows no country is immune to terrorism."

The attacks late Friday, May 16, were the first such acts of violence in the Muslim North African kingdom in recent years, and came just days after Monday’s car bombings in Saudi Arabia killed 34 people, including eight Americans.

Officials have linked those attacks to al-Qaida, the group that supported the September 11 attacks against the United States.

ANTI AMERICAN SENTIMENT

There was no immediate word of responsibility for the violence in Morocco, which has been linked to growing anti American and Jewish sentiments in a region where people are sceptical towards the U.S. Roadmap for Peace with Israel.

However Moroccan Interior Minister Al Mustapha Sahel was quoted as saying by 2M television early on Saturday that the attacks "bear the mark of international terrorism."

In a statement obtained by BosNewsLife Eastern Europe Bureau in Budapest, Saturday May 17, the Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Schwimmer strongly condemned the series of bomb attacks in Morocco’s largest city Casablanca.

"These are despicable acts of violence carried out by people with no respect for the values of civilized society. My revulsion at this cruel series of atrocities is shared by people throughout the 45 member States of our Organization" he said.

SYMPATHY TO FAMILIES

"Through its North-South Centre in Lisbon, the Council is Europe is working to improve understanding and cooperation between Europe and southern Mediterranean countries such as Morocco" he added.

"On behalf of the Organization I extend my sympathy to the families of the victims, and to the authorities of the Kingdom."

While some targets had Jewish connections one of them, the Casa de Espana Spanish social club, was clearly linked to Spain, one of the strong supporters of the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

"The doorman, poor thing, they cut his head off, like this, with a big knife…then they left one, two bombs. And there were Spaniards. I saw the doorman’s chair — it was covered in blood," Reuters quoted the club’s secretary as telling Spain’s state radio.

BIG KNIFE

"And they left a big knife. Then inside there was, I don’t know, flesh — flesh all over the place." The Belgium consulate was also badly damaged. These overnight blasts came hours after U.S. President George W. Bush warned of "killers on the loose" as terror alerts spread around the world.

In Bucharest, Romania, the United States Embassy confirmed Friday, May 16, reports that Iraqi and other nationals planned attacks against Western and Israeli facilities in that Balkan nation in March and April, BosNewsLife learned.

The Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) said that it had discovered and foiled a plot by terrorists who had planned to attack these building with AG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers in the build up to the Iraq war.

These weapons were said to have been supplied by the chief of the espionage service in the Iraqi embassy. Romania has since expelled at least 5 diplomats while the current presence of 10 Iraqi diplomats and 31 Iraqi nationals were described by the SRI as "undesirable."

PEACE TALKS CONTINUE

Amid the anti-Jewish violence and terror alerts, Israeli and Palestinian Prime Ministers were scheduled to meet later Saturday to discuss a possible cease-fire agreement that would end nearly three years of bloodshed.

The talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his new Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas represent the highest level contacts between the two sides in more than two years, the Voice of America (VOA) network said.

However the Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, the minister who has been responsible for peace negotiations with Israel, resigned on the eve of the talks in protest after he was left out of the Palestinian delegation. Erekat is seen as a close ally and adviser of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who Israel and the U.S. have been keen to isolate.