ALGIERS // A double car bombing in Algeria killed at least 11 people today, the interior minister said. The bombing occurred one day after an attack that left 43 people dead at a military academy and two days after extremists killed 11 members of the security forces. It was the bloodiest week in nearly a year. Thirty-one people, including four military personnel, were wounded. All the dead were civilians. The first bomb hit a military area, while the second targeted a hotel, exploding just as a passenger bus drove past. Yesterday's bombing at a school was one of the worst incidents in years. The target was the gendarmerie training school at Issers, 55 km east of the capital.
The Opec member state, a major oil and gas supplier to Europe, is emerging from more than a decade of conflict with rebels. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings today in Bouira, 150km east of Algiers, but they follow a spate of attacks by al Qa'eda's north African wing. Conflict began in Algeria in 1992 when a military-backed government scrapped the elections that a radical Islamic party was poised to win. About 150,000 people have died in the ensuing violence.
The bloodshed has eased in recent years but a hard core of several hundred rebels fight on as part of al Qa'eda's affiliate, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. The local al Qa'eda affiliate has claimed several attacks including the twin suicide bombings of UN offices and a court building in Algiers in December 2007 which killed 41 people. * Reuters
