CASABLANCA, Morocco -- King Hassan II rolled back food price increases that triggered four days of violence in northeast Morocco, reportedly killing more than 240 people, but blamed the unrest on 'Zionist' and pro-Iranian agitators.
Hassan, in a 15-minute nationally televised address from the royal palace Sunday, warned that his North African nation 'remains a country where the law is to be respected and all lawbreakers will be severely punished.'
It was the first official statement since the violence erupted Thursday in Morocco's Mediterranean coastal region about 300 miles northeast of Casablanca.
Just before Hassan's evening speech, the unrest spread to Casablanca for the first time and about 100 club-wielding youths clashed with riot police before being dispersed.
The king gave no official figure for the dead and injured in the disturbances but Spanish newspaper reports said more than 240 people died in four days of riots prompted by the food price hikes.
Hassan said he had ordered his government to scrap the increases, begun last last August, which added up to 67 percent to the price of butter, oil, sugar and other basic foodstuffs.
But Hassan denied the price increases were the primary cause of the rioting and instead pinned the blame on leftists, the Israeli secret service and pro-Iranian elements intent on undermining last week's summit meeting of more than 40 Islamic nations in Casablanca.
'The troubles ... are due to a multi-faceted conspiracy perpetrated by Marxist-Leninists, Zionist agents and (Iran's) Khomeinists, all seeking the collapse of the Islamic summit,' he said.
Reports in Madrid newspapers said three main centers of protests, near Spain's North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, were cut off from the rest of the country and patrolled by riot police and troops.
The Madrid newspaper Diaro 16 said at least 100 people were killed Thursday and Friday during fierce clashes in Tetuan. French television said some demonstrators disarmed soldiers and opened fire on the troops.
Another Madrid newspaper, El Pais, quoted Moroccan officials as saying at least 100 people died in El-Hoceima and 40 in Nador. Smaller demonstrations were reported in other cities.
The scrapped price increases were part of an economic austerity package devised to fund Morocco's costly nine-year war against Polisario Front guerrillas fighting for independence of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara.
The measures also were to meet demands imposed by the International Monetary Fund and Morocco's international creditors for a rescheduling of the country's $11 billion foreign debt.
