Perilous
Times
Bombing at Algerian army school kills 18
* From: AFP
* August 27, 2011 11:19AM
EIGHTEEN people have been killed and dozens wounded in a suicide
bombing at the Cherchell military academy west of Algiers.
Eight of those wounded in the attack late yesterday, the first
against the academy since a terror campaign started in the 1990s
in Algeria, were in very serious condition, the French-language
daily El Watan reported on its website.
The attack by two suicide bombers took place 100 kilometres west
of the Algerian capital, around 10 minutes after the breaking of
the Ramadan fast at 1830 GMT (0430 AEST).
The bombers, one on a motorcycle, set off explosions a few seconds
apart in front of the entrance to the officers' mess hall, El
Watan said.
A hospital source said the dead included 16 soldiers and two
civilians.
The wounded were evacuated to hospitals in the nearby towns of
Sidi Ghiles and Tipaza, as well as to the army's central
Ain-Naadja hospital in Algiers, the source said.
According to El Watan, the suicide bombers tried to cause as many
casualties as possible by targeting the officers' mess just as all
the soldiers were assembled to break the fast.
The reports were not confirmed by official sources.
Authorities generally remain tight-lipped about such incidents
which have not ended despite the policy of national reconciliation
adopted in the early 2000s by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Under this policy many Islamist fighters have been offered pardons
in exchange for laying down their arms.
The Cherchell Academy was set up by France during the war after
the Allied landings in North Africa on November 8, 1942.
It remained an officers' college after Algerian independence.
Since the fast started in early August, there have been many
attacks east of Algiers, especially in Kabylia, targeting the army
and police.
Late on Tuesday two policemen and a soldier were killed in two
separate attacks in the Bordj Bou Arreridj region, 220 kilometres
southeast of the capital, and in Boumerdes, 50 kilometres east of
Algiers.