Algerians woke on Tuesday (February 13th) to find themselves facing a resurgence of bomb attacks, which plagued the country from 1994 to 1997. Seven car bombs targeting police stations exploded simultaneously in the regions of Boumerdès and Tizi Ouzou, situated 50km and 100km east of Algiers.
Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb -- the new name for the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) -- claimed responsibility for the attacks in a telephone call to al-Jazeera.
Six people were killed, including two police officers, and 13 were wounded, according to the interior ministry. This is the first time since the dissolution of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) that bomb attacks have been conducted simultaneously so close to the capital. According to the ministry, the deadliest was the attack in Si Mustafa, Boumerdes province, where a car bomb killed four people.
The attacks were carried out simultaneously at 4:30am Algiers time, using remote-controlled car bombs.
"Everyone was asleep ... I heard a loud explosion, and the windows in the house shook," says Rachid Taourirt, who lives in the town of Tizi Ouzou, 11km from the attack on the police station in Draâ Ben Khedda. Cherif Kahdmi, a resident of the nearby town of Mekla described the police station as "completely destroyed".
| "Due to lack of elements and difficulty of recruitment, and especially the vigileance of security services in large urban centres, the GSPC had no choice but to obey Ayman al-Zawahiri who legitimizes collective massacres -- car bomb attacks that cause more damage," the paper reported. |
Algeria daily Liberte Algerie said on Wednesday that the GSPC seems to have abandoned its confrontational strategy, opting for the "less risky" remotely detonated car bombs. "Due to lack of elements and difficulty of recruitment, and especially the vigileance of security services in large urban centres, the GSPC had no choice but to obey Ayman al-Zawahiri who legitimizes collective massacres -- car bomb attacks that cause more damage," the paper reported.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa denounced the attacks and voiced the league's solidarity with Algeria in its anti-terror fight.
The attacks come a week after statements from Interior Ministry Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni and Deputy Minister for Local Communities Dahou Ould Kablia, of possible risks posed by the GSPC. According to Zerhouni, the groupÂ’s decision to take a new name "changes nothing in reality. We are still dealing with the same men, and we shall fight them to the end." Ould Kablia, downplayed the threat posed by the Salafist Group, judging it to be "on its way to being stamped out." |