2 detained in Morocco near site of blast

Police detained two men Thursday near the scene of three suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco's official news agency reported, and a police official said one was carrying explosives.

The arrests in the working-class Hay al-Farah neighborhood came a day after Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said authorities were still searching for "three or four suspects" allegedly linked to the bombers in Tuesday's attack that stoked new fears of terrorism in the North African kingdom.

One suspect was caught after fleeing into a house, demanding food and threatening to blow himself up, said a police investigator, asking that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The official news agency MAP reported that two men were detained in the course of a routine investigation. It said one suspect entered a house and threatened to blow himself up if the occupants did not give him food.

The agency said the one of the detainees was released after police determined he had no explosives and was not linked to the suicide attacks or to another suicide bombing on March 11 in an Internet cafe.

In Tuesday's violence, three people blew themselves up with explosive belts, killing a police officer and injuring 21. A fourth suspect was shot and killed by police while fumbling with his explosives, officials have said.

Police, acting on a tip, had cornered the four suspects in a sweep linked to an investigation of a suicide attack at a Casablanca cybercafe last month that killed the bomber and injured four others.

Since five suicide bombings that killed 45 people in Morocco in May 2003, police have pursued an unprecedented crackdown on suspected militants, arresting thousands of people, including some accused of working with al-Qaida and its affiliates to plot attacks in Morocco and abroad.