2003 — The Casablanca Bombings

On the night of May 16, 2003, twelve suicide bombers struck five targets across Casablanca, among them a hotel, a restaurant, a Jewish civic association, and the Belgian consulate. In a single night of coordinated violence, ordinary places of gathering became scenes of mourning in Morocco's great commercial city by the sea.

Thirty-three people were killed and more than a hundred wounded in the deadliest terrorist attack in Morocco's history. The carnage triggered mass arrests, tough new security laws, and a deep national reckoning. A city known for its openness was left to ask how such hatred had taken root, and how to answer it.