Morocco Bombing

A huge blast in a popular cafe in Marakesh, Morocco has killed at least 14 people. From Reuters:

The blast ripped through the second storey of a cafe overlooking Marrakesh’s Jamaa el-Fnaa square, a spot that is usually bustling with foreign tourists and local vendors.

Officials did not say if they suspected the involvement of Islamist militants. The militants’ last big attack was a series of suicide bombings in Morocco’s commercial capital, Casablanca, in 2003 in which more than 45 people were killed.

Two people in Marrakesh told Reuters the explosion was the work of a suicide bomber, but there was no immediate confirmation of this.

A video from AP

This is clearly a tragedy and crime on its own terms. But what is most disturbing to me is that these kinds of suicide bombings and Al Qaeda inspired terrorist attacks seem to be such a throwback to the pre -#Jan25 era.  After watching the inspirational movements for freedom and democracy in north Africa these past five months, an attack like this almost seems anachronistic and reminiscent of an earlier time.