Algeria suffered its worst violence since its long civil war yesterday when terrorists affiliated to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for twin bombings in the capital Algiers that killed up to 30 people and wounded more than 100 others. Abdel-Aziz Belkhadem, the prime minister, condemned what he called "cowardly and criminal attacks" after separate blasts at his own office in the centre of Algiers and shortly after at a police station. "The whole block of the entrance to the prime minister's office blew up," said one eyewitness. Scores of ambulances converged on the residential neighbourhood while dazed survivors were led from the badly damaged six-storey building.Helicopters circled over a wealthy neighbourhood of Algiers as police disarmed detonators attached to TNT and gas canisters in a car parked near the home of a senior police officer, raising fears that other attacks were planned. Police sources said the first attack was a suicide bombing and that guards had opened fire on a vehicle that exploded 30 yards from the main door of the prime minister's office.
Bombs have been going off in Algeria since last October, but mostly in outlying areas and causing small numbers of casualties. The first of yesterday's attacks took place in a heavily guarded part of the capital, making a mockery of the government's security measures and undermining its controversial policy of granting amnesties to convicted terrorists. "It's a direct challenge to the government," said George Joffe, a Cambridge University authority on north Africa. "This is really going to hurt."
A spokesman for al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb [north Africa] later claimed responsibility for the attacks in a phone call to al-Jazeera TV. "We won't rest until every inch of Islamic land is liberated from foreign forces," said a man identified as Abu Mohammed Salah.