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WORLD / Africa
Car bomb at barracks in Algeria kills at least 28
(AP)
Updated: 2007-09-08 21:17
ALGIERS, Algeria?- A booby-trapped car exploded outside coast guard
barracks in Algeria on Saturday, killing at least 28 people in the North
African nation's second terror attack in less than 48 hours, hospital
authorities said.
The explosion ripped through the northern coastal town of Dellys, about
50 kilometers (30 miles) from Algiers, as the local coast guard was
taking part in the morning flag-raising ceremony.
All the victims were coast guard officials, who are part of Algeria's
armed forces, hospital officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity
because they were not authorized to speak to media. The death toll rose
steadily throughout the day as many victims died in the hospital of their
injuries. Dozens more were injured.
A recent spate of major bombings in Algeria has generated fears of a
return to the mass-scale violence of the 1990s, when Algeria's Islamic
insurgency peaked. The country, a staunch US ally in the war against
terror, has been trying to turn the page on the 15-year insurgency that
killed 200,000 people. Until recently, its efforts appeared mostly
successful.
The attack came just two days after another bombing killed at least 22 in
a crowd of people in eastern Algeria who were waiting to see visiting
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has devoted his eight years in office
to ending the insurgency.
There was widespread speculation that Bouteflika was the intended target
of that attack, though Algerian officials kept silent on the question.
Police said the bomber was killed by security services after he dropped
the explosives and tried to escape.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility in either attack. However,
an al-Qaida affiliate calling itself al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa has
been active in Algeria lately. On Friday, Interior Minister Noureddine
Yazid Zerhouni warned terrorists that they have "one choice: turn
themselves in, or die."
Algeria's insurgency broke out in 1992, after the army canceled
legislative elections that a now-banned Islamic fundamentalist party was
poised to win.
Widespread killing was on the wane until recently, but violence
resurfaced this year after Algeria's Salafist Group for Call and Combat,
or GSPC, officially linked with al-Qaida, taking the name al-Qaida in
Islamic North Africa.
The group claimed responsibility for other attacks this year, including
an April suicide bombing outside the prime minister's office in Algiers
and a simultaneous attack on a police station that killed 32 people.
Al-Qaida's Algerian branch also said it was responsible for another
attack in July, when a suicide bomber blew up a refrigerated truck inside
a military encampment southeast of the Algerian capital, killing 10
soldiers.
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