Explosion rocks Algerian capital

[maddezmom]

Source: BBC

Explosion rocks Algerian capital

A loud explosion has hit an area in the Algerian capital where the prime minister's office is.
The blast rocked several buildings in Algiers city centre, causing panic on the streets, residents said.

Dozens of people were injured in the blast, AFP news agency reported. It was not clear what caused the explosion.




Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6544437.stm

---

Another Attack on police station in Algeria surburb

ALGIERS (AFP) - A bomb blast on Wednesday targeted a police station in an eastern suburb of Algiers, near the Algerian capital's international airport, witnesses said.


Residents in Bab Ezzouar, a densely populated district which also houses the university of science and technology, were unable to say whether there were any casualties in the blast.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070411/wl_africa_afp/algeriablastpolice_070411104054

[maddezmom]

1. Bomb blasts kill 17 in Algerian capital

Bomb blasts kill 17 in Algerian capital 21 minutes ago



ALGIERS (AFP) - Two bomb blasts killed 17 people and injured 82 in the Algerian capital on Wednesday, authorities said.


The civil defence department said in a statement that the blast outside the government headquarters left nine people dead and 32 wounded, while the explosion shortly afterwards at a police station killed eight people and injured 50.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070411/wl_mideast_afp/algeriaattackstoll_070411112728

[maddezmom]

2. Two Algiers bombs kill 30

Two Algiers bombs kill 30 By William Maclean and Lamine Chikhi
12 minutes ago



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.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070411/wl_nm/algeria_blast_dc

[maddezmom]

5. AP: 23 dead, 160 hurt in 2 Algiers bombings

23 dead, 160 hurt in 2 Algiers bombings By AOMAR OUALI, Associated Press Writer
14 minutes ago



ALGIERS, Algeria - Bombs heavily damaged the prime minister's office and a police station Wednesday, killing at least 23 people and wounding about 160, the country's official news agency said. Al-Qaida's wing in North Africa claimed responsibility.

Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, who was unhurt, called the attack a "cowardly, criminal terrorist act" as he spoke to reporters outside his wrecked offices.

The attacks were a devastating setback for the North African nation's efforts to close the chapter on its Islamic insurgency that has killed 200,000 people. After years of relative calm, the al-Qaida affiliate recently has recently waged several smaller attacks in the oil- and gas-rich nation.

Belkhadem declined to say how many had been killed or wounded. The official APS agency said at least 23 people were killed and 160 wounded in the two attacks, but gave no breakdown. The other bombing targeted the police station of Bab Ezzouar, east of the capital, Algiers, on the road to its airport.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070411/ap_on_re_af/algeria_explosion

[Eugene]

3. Al Qaeda claims deadly Algiers bombings

Source: Reuters

Al Qaeda claims deadly Algiers bombings
11 Apr 2007 14:57:42 GMT
Source: Reuters

(Adds claim of responsibility)

By William Maclean and Lamine Chikhi

ALGIERS, April 11 (Reuters) - Bombs killed 30 people in Algeria's capital on
Wednesday, attacks claimed by al Qaeda that raised fears the north African
oil exporter was slipping back into the intense political violence of the 1990s.

One of the blasts, believed to be a suicide bombing, ripped part of the facade
off the prime minister's headquarters in the centre of Algiers. A second bomb
hit Bab Ezzouar on its eastern outskirts, the official APS news agency said.

The Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for
the bombings, Al Jazeera television reported.

The claim could not be immediately verified but the group, formerly known as
the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has taken responsibility
for a number of deadly attacks on security forces and foreigners in Algeria
since January.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11404708.htm

[bemildred]

4. I would guess they were involved in the Casablanca bombings too. nt

[Eugene]

8. Morocco says Casablanca, Algiers blasts not linked

Source: Reuters

Morocco says Casablanca, Algiers blasts not linked
11 Apr 2007 21:04:55 GMT
Source: Reuters

CASABLANCA, April 11 (Reuters) - Bomb blasts in Morocco and Algeria
in the past two days were the uncoordinated work of different terrorist
groups, Moroccan Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said on Wednesday.

Three suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up on Tuesday following
a police raid on a house in a suburb of Morocco's economic capital
Casablanca in which a fourth suspect was shot dead.

On Wednesday, the Algeria-based Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed
responsibility for bombs that killed 30 people in Algiers.

"What happened yesterday (in Casablanca) has nothing to do with the
terrorist acts that neighbouring countries have seen," Benmoussa told
reporters. "The (Moroccan) group ... has no direct link with
international terrorist networks."

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11218783.htm

[bemildred]

9. Well, that settles that. No connection at all.

:-)

[bemildred]

10. Moroccan Minister: Link Between Morocco and Algeria Bombings Not Ruled Out

Fox Snooze likes the idea that they were related.

CASABLANCA, Morocco — Moroccan investigators have not uncovered links between bombings one day apart in Morocco and in Algeria, but "we don't rule it out," said Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa on Wednesday.

At a news conference, he said three Moroccans who blew themselves up Tuesday had relatively small amounts of explosives that they wore on their bodies, while the Algerian bombings on Wednesday involved cars packed with explosives.

Benmoussa said the timing of the attacks was possibly coincidental. He pointed out that the Morocco bombings were provoked when the police closed in on the men, and apparently not planned.

"We don't rule it out, but we have established no link," he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,265421,00.html

[ohio2007]

6. Lookout France, your colonial past rears its ugly face.

It will be interesting to see how the spin in the French MSM covers the speculation on all this

[Igel]

7. France seems to be irrelevant in this.

Islamists want to institute an Islamist government, and there's a relatively moderate one in the way.

Granted, they may think that even reading something that a Frenchman has written is grounds for beheading, but we can't blame the French for that. This is home-grown lunacy, similar to the lunacy in countries that France had little to do with, and even countries that were never actually a "colony" of any European country.

[ohio2007]

12. France wrote their book on "how to fight extremism" in Algeria

and the French Foreign Legion put their text book principles into action in controlling the majority. Keeping from taking over in Algeria has been simmering for decades.
I hate using wikipedia as a reference but what is happening in Algeria has roots going back 100 years ;

Nationalism and resistance in Algeria
French rule in Algeria

Algerian War of Independence



Algeria,post Independence

-snip-
...The French conquest of Algeria was slow due to intense resistance from such Muslims as Emir Abdelkader, Ahmed Bey and Fatma N'Soumer. Indeed the conquest was not technically complete until the early 1900s when the last Tuareg were conquered.
...
-snip-
1980, there was a very youthful population and a housing crisis. The new generation struggled to relate to the cultural obsession with the war years and two conflicting protest movements developed: left-wingers, including Berber identity movements; and Islamic 'intégristes'. Both groups protested against one-party rule but also clashed with each other in universities and on the streets during the 1980s. Mass protests from both camps in autumn 1988 forced Benjedid to concede the end of one-party rule. Elections were planned to happen in 1991. In December 1991, the Islamic Salvation Front won the first round of the country's first multi-party elections. The military then cancelled the second round, forced then-president Bendjedid to resign, and banned the Islamic Salvation Front. The ensuing conflict engulfed Algeria in the violent Algerian Civil War.
More than 160,000 people were killed between 17 January 1992 and June 2002. Many civilians were massacred. The question of who was responsible for these deaths remains controversial among academic observers; many were claimed by the Armed Islamic Group


There is a large,young Algerian population in France. They call them 'Africans' as opposed to citizens of France. These 'Africans' have been fighting wars for France since WW I and are getting so restless,France is passing laws against "freedom of the press" by private citizens;

France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence
no Rodney King type videotaping allowed by the public in France

Might be a very interesting summer being reported by the French press on their home front. US politics will not be on their MSM front burner in.

[maddezmom]

11. Death toll in Algeria bombings hits 33

Death toll in Algeria bombings hits 33 By AIDAN LEWIS, Associated Press Writer
8 minutes ago



ALGIERS, Algeria - The death toll from al-Qaida-claimed suicide bombings in Algeria rose Thursday to 33, the government said, and police rolled out in force in the shaken capital, establishing highway checkpoints to reinforce security.

Another 57 people remained hospitalized from injuries suffered in Wednesday's blasts that struck the prime minister's office and a police station, said Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni, who made his comments to the official APS news agency after visiting hospitals. Some 222 people were wounded in all.

The heavy security presence highlighted the menacing spread of Islamic militancy across North Africa and was reminiscent of the height of Algeria's Islamic insurgency in the 1990s.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070412/ap_on_re_af/algeria_explosion