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New bomb attacks in Algeria killed 12
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-21 10:27 ALGIERS, Algeria -- Two car bombs rocked a hotel and military headquarters in Algeria, killing 12 people, a day after a suicide bombing nearby killed 43. The double attack is the sixth major terrorist action this month in the North African nation.
No group has claimed responsibility for the recent spate of killings, including the two remote-controlled car bombs that struck the city of Bouira on Wednesday. But all six occurred in the area east of the capital where militants from an Algerian offshoot of al-Qaida are suspected to operate. Violence in this gas- and oil-rich US ally has surged since the homegrown extremist group GSPC, which led a deadly insurgency in the 1990s, joined Osama bin Laden's network in 2006 and took the name Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa. The death toll surged to more than 70 this month alone, and the relentless bombings led many newspapers to question whether authorities have grown too lenient, or too weak, to fight Islamist extremists. Terrorism expert Jean-Louis Bruguiere says the group is receiving military reinforcements from al-Qaida in Iraq, and using Algeria as a "platform" from which to spread instability throughout North Africa and possibly beyond. "The security situation is deteriorating, and it's worrisome for Europe," said Bruguiere, formerly France's top counterterrorism judge and now the European Union coordinator of a terrorism finance tracking program jointly run with the United States. Interior Minister Yazid Zehrouni, however, insisted the string of attacks suggest that extremist groups are "riddled with internal problems and are mainly aiming to raise internal troop morale." |
