June 4, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1424

PARIS, June 3: French police who are assisting Moroccan investigators in their attempt to find those responsible for the May 16 terrorist bombings in Casablanca that killed 43 persons say they now believe the number of persons involved in the attack was much greater than the 28 so far thought to have taken part.

They also believe that the attack was not a purely Moroccan affair as has until now been intimated by Moroccan authorities.

Moroccan police have so far arrested 16 individuals, while 12 kamikazes died in the series of attacks in Casablanca. All of them have for the moment have been presented as Moroccan nationals.

The police are concentrating their attention on finding one person suspected of having played an important role in organizing the attack, a French citizen by the name of Robert Richard Antoine Pierre — a name made up strangely for four commonplace French forenames. They believe he converted to Islam and assumed the name of Abdou Abderrahmane. Although the search most recently for this individual has been concentrated on the region about Tangier, the police say that in fact Mr Abderrahmane could be hiding on French soil.

Which is why French anti-terrorist police undertook a raid of the Paris region two weeks ago [May 19] during which four persons — all of Moroccan nationality, it turned out — were arrested and placed in detention.