FACTBOX: Key facts about Morocco's fight against bombers

(Reuters) - A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up shortly after police shot dead a second suspected suicide bomber overnight in a Casablanca slum, Moroccan police sources said on Tuesday.

Here are some facts on Morocco and its security effort.

SECURITY

- Moroccan magistrates have charged 24 Islamists with plotting a wave of bombings in the North African country.

- The government has said they include at least seven would-be suicide bombers and planned to blow up foreign ships at Casablanca port, hotels in Marrakech, Agadir and Essaouira, and other buildings including police headquarters in Casablanca.

- The 24 were arrested after their suspected leader, Abdelfattah Raydi, blew himself up at an Internet cafe on March 11 to prevent police taking him alive, the government says.

- Morocco has been on high alert since security officials said in February they had information about an al Qaeda plot to attack the country. The government says the 24 suspects have no links with al Qaeda.

- In 2003, 13 disaffected youths from Casablanca's slums headed into town and blew themselves up, killing 45 people in all.

- Security officials say police have broken up more than 50 radical Islamist cells, some linked to al Qaeda, and arrested more than 3,000 people since the 2003 bombings.

THE COUNTRY

- Morocco, a North African kingdom of 30 million, welcomes about five million tourists a year.

- It languishes in 123rd place out of 177 countries in the U.N. Human Development Index, which measures factors like child mortality and access to health and education.

- Free-market reforms to spur the economy have not yet solved high unemployment.

- Moroccans say the bulk of the population has fallen far behind a wealthy Westernized elite that dominates the administration and jealously guards its privileges.