Police rolled out in force in Algeria's capital on Thursday, establishing highway checkpoints after suicide attacks claimed by al-Qaeda killed 24 people and injured 222 others. Wednesday's bombings lent credence to fears that al-Qaeda's new wing in North Africa is coalescing into a deadly threat. The reinforced surveillance was reminiscent of the height of Algeria's insurgency in the 1990s. Authorities said the death toll from the car bombings of the prime minister's office and a police station could rise. Western countries reduced embassy services and urged their citizens to avoid travelling on predictable routes. The group that claimed responsibility, al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa, was built on the foundations of a decade-old Algerian insurgency group fighting the nation's secular government. The new al-Qaeda wing has carried out a series of recent bombings jeopardising Algeria's tentative peace. The country, a staunch US ally in the war against terror, has been trying to recover from the 15-year insurgency, which killed 200 000 people. Algeria's neighbours have felt an increase in terror activity. Courts in Tunisia, to the east, in recent months convicted at least two dozen suspects on terrorism-related charges - many said to be linked to the Algeria-based network.