Al-Qa’eda admits to Algerian bombings
By Fiona Govan in Madrid, 10 september 2007
Al-Qa’eda has claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings in Algeria that left 57 dead.
Radical Islamist insurgents in the country have recently allied with Osama bin Laden’s network and styled themselves « al-Qa’eda of the Islamic Maghreb ».
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Western counter-terrorism officials fear this could herald al-Qa’eda’s expansion across North Africa.
The worst attack was on Saturday at an Algerian naval barracks in Dellys, 60 miles east of Algiers. At least 37 coastguards were killed when a van packed with explosives was driven into the barracks during a flag-raising ceremony.
In a statement on Saturday al-Qa’eda said it was also responsible for an attack less than 48 hours earlier in the town of Batna, which killed at least 20 people.
The group confirmed suspicions that the suicide bomber, who blew himself up in a crowd on Thursday, had aimed to kill President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who had been due to pay an official visit to Batna.
The bomber was forced to detonate his device prematurely after being discovered before the president’s arrival.
« We reiterate that the majority of those killed in this operation were from the police and security forces… and that our brother did not target innocent people, » said the statement, posted on an Islamist website.
As many as 200,000 may have died in Algeria’s Islamist insurgency, which began in 1992. But the level of violence had fallen until this year, when the main Islamist group, styling itself the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, merged with al-Qa’eda.
President Bouteflika said that by targeting innocent people, the attackers had betrayed « their people, their country, their religion ».
