Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Suicide bomb attack kills 15 prior to Algerian president's mosque visit -attack blamed on Al Qaeda

Suicide bomb attack kills 15 prior to Algerian president's mosque visit -attack blamed on Al Qaeda

September 6, 2007

Suicide bomb kills 15 in Algeria

The bomb went off in Batna prior to a visit by President Bouteflika

At least 15 people have been killed and more than 75 injured in a suicide bombing in Algeria.

The attack happened in the town of Batna, about 450km (279 miles) east of the capital, Algiers.

The bomb exploded in a crowd of people awaiting a scheduled visit to the town by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

In April, two bombs killed 23 people in Algiers. A group calling itself Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said it carried out those attacks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest bombing.

But Mr Bouteflika accused Islamist militants of trying to disrupt his policy of national reconciliation, which is aimed at ending 15 years of fighting between the army and groups trying to set up an Islamic state.

"Terrorist acts have absolutely nothing in common with the noble values of Islam," the official APS news agency quoted him as saying.

The president later visited some of the wounded in a local hospital.

Conflict broke out in Algeria in 1992 after a general election won by an Islamist party was annulled, resulting in a bloody civil war in which more than 150,000 people died.

Insecurity has been increasing in Algeria, and across North Africa, since the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) re-launched itself as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb at the beginning of this year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6982487.stm

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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jc5G-04zhHDZHIFbqhdRxe7nwjmw

Algeria: 7 Militants Killed

By AOMAR OUALI – 1 day ago

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Security forces bombed a suspected militant hideout in Algeria early Wednesday, killing seven people believed to be responsible for a deadly ambush this week, officials said.

The alleged militants were in a cave near Lagla el-Malha, a village in the troubled Tebessa region about 370 miles east of the capital, Algiers, security officials said.

The seven killed were suspected of carrying out an ambush Monday that killed five security officials and one civilian in the eastern town of Henchir El-Hoshas.

The officials said a team checking the area near Lagla el-Malha bombed the hideout from a helicopter early Wednesday.

Liberte newspaper reported Wednesday that a group of militants had swarmed a neighborhood in the town on Monday, entered a house and slit the throat of a 50-year-old occupant.

Security forces arrived on the scene, but found it was booby trapped with homemade bombs and mines that detonated as they entered the neighborhood, killing five security officers, the report said.

The militants fled into the surrounding forest, launching a security sweep to find them, according to Liberte.

Located on the Tunisian border, the Tebessa region has been the site of several recent attacks by a local al-Qaida affiliate. In July and August at least 80 people — most of them armed militants — were killed in clashes in the region, according to local media outlets.

Algeria has been working to quell sporadic violence linked to an insurgency that broke out in 1992 after the army canceled legislative elections that an Islamic party was set to win. As many as 200,000 people have died in the resulting violence.

While large-scale violence died down in the 1990s, scattered attacks by Al-Qaida in North Africa have mounted in recent months.

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