United Nations staff among 62 dead in Algiers
Pastor Dale Morgan
United Nations staff among 62 dead in Algiers*
By David Blair, Diplomatic Correspondent, and Henry Samuel in Paris
Last Updated: 12:23am GMT 12/12/2007
Algeria suffered its worst terrorist attacks for almost a decade today
when two car bombs exploded in the capital, Algiers, killing 62 people
including 10 United Nations officials.
The explosions, occurring only minutes apart, were targeted at the
Supreme Court and the offices of the UN High Commission for Refugees
(UNHCR). A bus carrying university students was caught in the first
blast, leaving many dead.
Rescue personnel at the destroyed UNHCR building in Algiers
Emergency services search the rubble of the destroyed UNHCR building in
Algiers
Although there was no claim of responsibility, radical Islamists have
carried out numerous bomb attacks in Algeria.
Last year, terrorists styling themselves the Salafist Group for
Preaching and Combat - known by their French acronym GSPC - officially
merged with al-Qa'eda.
They renamed themselves "al-Qa'eda in the Islamic Maghreb" and said
their "holy warriors" were at the command of Osama bin Laden.
Since then, multiple suicide attacks targeting foreign interests have
become more frequent. Today's incidents appeared consistent with this
modus operandi.
The first car bomb exploded outside the Supreme Court in central
Algiers. By malign chance, a bus carrying students to a nearby law
faculty happened to be passing and took the full force of the blast. The
vehicle was utterly destroyed and young students accounted for many of
the 30 people killed in this attack.
Minutes later, a second car bomb detonated outside the UNHCR office in
the affluent Hydra area of Algiers. The exterior of the UN's tower block
was torn away, showering the street with rubble. Another office block on
the far side of the road, housing the UN's Development Programme, was
also severely damaged.
Of the 15 people who died in this explosion, Jean Fabre, a UN spokesman
in Geneva, said that 10 were UN employees. All were believed to be
Algerian. Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, condemned the attack
"in the strongest possible terms".
Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, the interior minister, told state radio that
a "suicide bomber" had carried out the "attack which took place outside
the UN building".
He said that 22 people had been confirmed dead in the blasts, but
hospital sources put the toll far higher.
Map of Algiers
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who paid a state visit to Algeria
last week, denounced the "barbaric, hateful and deeply cowardly acts".
Algeria has suffered Islamist violence since a political crisis in 1992.
A radical party, the Islamic Salvation Front, won the first round of a
general election - whereupon the army intervened to cancel the second
round of the contest and prevent them from taking power. The Islamists
began waging a guerrilla war, which claimed about 100,000 lives during
the 1990s.
But the levels of violence fell after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika won
power in 1999. The Islamist rebels split and the security forces
inflicted a series of heavy defeats.
The GSPC was the only terrorist group still carrying out regular
attacks. The group appears to have been energised by its alliance with
al-Qa'eda.
In April, two simultaneous bomb attacks on government buildings in
Algiers left 30 dead. Three months ago, 22 died when a suicide bomber
tried to assassinate Mr Bouteflika. Today's attacks were the deadliest
Algeria has known since the late 1990s.
Western security officials believe that the GSPC may try to strike
targets in western Europe, perhaps using cells in the Algerian diaspora.
France, the former colonial power, has by far the largest Algerian
community. Considerable numbers also live in Britain, where the GSPC may
also have a presence.
Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, head of the French domestic security
service, said that France faces a "very high" threat of terrorist
attack. "For our Islamist adversaries, our country is frankly in the
Western camp, the crusaders in their words, and we will be spared
nothing," he said.