At least 23 die in 2 terrorist bombings in Algeria

At least 23 die in 2 terrorist bombings in Algeria
By Craig S. Smith
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: April 11, 2007

PARIS: Two bombings in Algeria, one targeting the main government building in the country's capital, killed at least 23 people Wednesday, marking a sharp escalation in the Qaeda-linked violence that has been spreading across North Africa in recent months.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, North Africa's most active terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the attacks. The bombing in Algiers was the worst terrorist attack in the capital in more than a decade.

"This is a crime, a cowardly act," said Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, speaking on national radio shortly after the explosion tore open the front of the building housing his office. "It can only be described as cowardice and betrayal at a time when the Algerian people are asking for national reconciliation."

The bombing of the government building killed at least 12 people and wounded 118, according to APS, the country's official new agency. The agency reported that 11 others were killed and 44 wounded in a second attack at a police station on the road to the country's international airport, east of the capital.

The terrorist group, originally called the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, was created in 1998 as an offshoot of an earlier Islamist group that had been fighting the government in a decade-long civil war.

Its numbers had been seriously eroded by two government offers of amnesty and a subsequent manhunt by Algerian security forces. But the core of the group, hundreds strong, has steadfastly rejected reconciliation and last year aligned itself with Al Qaeda.

Al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, publicly anointed the group as Al Qaeda's representative in North Africa on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and in January the group changed its name to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The group has undergone an apparent revival since then, drawing new members from across North Africa, terrorism experts in Europe and North Africa say.

Governments on both sides of the Mediterranean fear that the rebranded group is coalescing into a regional terror movement.

"The concern is that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb want their reach to be larger than it is now," said Rear Admiral William McRaven, Commander of Special Operations Command Europe, speaking at his headquarters in Stuttgart last month.

U.S. Special Operations Forces are helping train militaries in the so-called Trans-Sahara region to help combat the terrorist threat. "They are already somewhat regional and growing," he said of the Algerian organization.

In December and January, Tunisian security forces killed 12 Islamic extremists and captured another 15 after uncovering a terrorist cell whose leaders had crossed into the country from Algeria.

The Moroccan authorities, meanwhile, were hunting for as many as 10 would-be suicide bombers after three men blew themselves up Tuesday and a third wearing explosives was killed before he could do so. One policeman was killed in the blasts. The men were being sought in connection with an explosion in a Casablanca Internet cafe on March 11 in which another Islamist extremist blew himself up.

Many terrorism experts suspect that those men are also linked to the Algerian group.

Attacks in Algeria have also steadily increased since a convoy of foreign construction workers was bombed outside the capital in December. In February, the group detonated five powerful car bombs outside police stations in six towns east of the capital, Algiers, killing six people.

Last month, a convoy of oil workers was attacked in Ain Defla Province, west of Algiers, killing one Russian and three Ukranians. Subsequent clashes with the Algerian Army killed nine soldiers and four fighters from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The bombings Wednesday confirmed fears that the violence would again enter the capital, which became a war zone during the country's horrific civil war in the 1990s.

The attacks began around 10:45 a.m. when a suicide bomber drove an explosive-packed vehicle through the gate at the prime minister's office building in central Algiers. The explosion tore apart the front of the six-story, French colonial-era building, shattered windows in nearby ministries and set several cars in the vicinity on fire. Witnesses reported seeing rescue teams remove at least seven badly burned bodies from the rubble.

"It was shocking, incredible," said Leila Benhamoud, who was at the scene shortly after the blasts. "Even in the park nearby, they found a burned body in the grass." A second blast destroyed a police station in the eastern suburb of Bab Ezzouar.

Al Jazeera's bureau in Rabat, Morocco, reported that it had received a telephone call from a spokesman for Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claiming responsibility for both attacks.

The caller claimed that the blasts had been carried out by three Al Qaeda members driving "trucks filled" with explosives and that the bombers had targeted three sites, including the government headquarters in Algiers, Interpol's Algiers offices and a special police forces building in Bab Ezzouar, Al Jazeera said. There was no report of an attack at Interpol's Algiers offices.

Said Chitour contributed reporting from Algiers.