At Least 45 Dead in Algiers Bombings

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/world/africa/12algiers.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

By KATRIN BENNHOLD
Published: December 12, 2007
PARIS, Dec. 11 -- Two car bombs exploded in close succession in the
Algerian capital today, killing at least 45 people and wounding
several others, according to Algerian officials. One official said it
was the worst day of violence in the capital this decade.

Thirty people died in a blast near the Constitutional Court building
in Algiers, while another 15 were killed in a second explosion near a
number of United Nations offices, a diplomat said, citing information
released by the Algerian Civil Protection Agency.

The Algerian interior minister, Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, said that
in both cases explosives had been strapped to vehicles, the Algerian
press agency reported on its web site.

There was no immediate indication of whether the twin attacks were the
work of a well-known Salafist terrorist group with a long history of
violence and alleged links to Al Qaeda.

The Group for Preaching and Combat, which is better known by its
French initials, GSPC, has been under close watch by American and
European counter-terrorism officials for several years.

The scrutiny intensified after the group announced last year that it
had joined Al Qaeda in a bid to become its North African arm and
organize extremists across the region.

Algeria suffered from intense violence after the Algerian army staged
a coup to prevent an Islamic party from winning elections in 1992. The
violence eventually subsided, but in recent years sporadic attacks
have continued to disrupt life in Algeria and neighboring countries.

On April 11, a suicide bomb killed 33 people in Algiers.
Responsibility for that attack was claimed by GSPC, also known as Al
Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

That the bombing today occurred on the 11th of the month may be
significant, several counter-terrorism officials noted. The attack in
April also occurred on the 11th. Both bring to mind the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks in the United States and the March 11, 2004, bombings in
Madrid. After the April bombing, some terrorism experts suggested that
the attacks added to the accumulating symbolism of that day of the
month.

Jean-Louis Bruguière, who was France's chief anti-terrorism judge
until May, has long warned that the GSPC was turning into one of the
most serious terrorist threats for Europe. Referring to the bombings
today, he said in a telephone interview: "They carry the mark of the
GSPC."

He added: "Al Qaeda has succeeded in creating an advanced unit in a
strategic region: North Africa is the door to Europe. The methods they
are using are imported from Iraq."

The aim of the terrorist group is to overthrow the government and
install an Islamic theocracy in Algeria and throughout North Africa.

Al Qaeda' s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, 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, a region that includes
Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.

The group has apparently undergone a 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 group is coalescing into a regional terror movement.

Graham Bowley contributed reporting from New York.