| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Africa North | |
| Two bombings in Algiers kill | |
| 2007-04-11 | |
ALGIERS (Reuters) - A car bomb rocked central Algiers on Wednesday, ripping the facade off a government building and sending debris and broken glass over several blocks, witnesses said. Dozens of ambulances converged on the upscale residential neighborhood in the centre of the Algerian capital as thousands of people poured onto the streets. The official APS news agency said the bomb targeted the prime minister's headquarters.
Witnesses told Reuters the explosion was a car bomb, possibly located in a parking facility below the building. Police at the scene declined to comment. Violence in Algeria has been on the rise since the main guerrilla group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), adopted a new name in January and deepened its ties to al Qaeda. The group has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly bombings targeting security forces and foreigners, and Algerian troops and militants have clashed. UPDATE: ALGIERS (Reuters) - Bombs killed 30 people in Algiers on Wednesday in the first such attacks in Algeria's capital in years, raising fears of a return to the north African oil exporter's recent history of political bloodletting. Residents said it was the first time since the 1990s that a powerful bomb targeted the centre of the Mediterranean city, where police had stepped up security following an upsurge in attacks by suspected Islamist insurgents in the countryside. One of the blasts ripped part of the facade off the prime minister's headquarters at the centre of the elegant port city. A second bomb hit Bab Ezzouar on the city's eastern outskirts, the official APS news agency said. Hospital sources put the toll from the two bombings at 30. Earlier, the official APS news agency put the toll at 17 dead with 82 wounded. | |
| Posted by:Steve |