Twin Bombs Kill Dozens in Algiers

Source: NY Times


ALGIERS — Twin car bombs near United Nations offices and an Algerian government building killed dozens of people Tuesday in what may have been the deadliest attack here in more than a decade.

Two European diplomats in Algiers said that reports from rescue and medical workers led them to believe that 60 or more people had died. By Tuesday evening, 26 deaths had been confirmed by the Algerian Interior Ministry.

The terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility, posting a message on Islamist Web sites with photographs of two men it claimed were suicide bombers who carried out the attacks, which it said were aimed at “the Crusaders and their agents, the slaves of America and the sons of France.”

Some of the dead were students aboard a bus that was on its way to a university when it was struck by the first car bomb. Late Tuesday night, about 200 people huddled outside the police perimeter as rescue workers in dusty overalls and helmets worked to recover those still trapped inside.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/world/africa/12algiers.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

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Keeping the world free from terror, 2007 style.

While ethnic strife isn't new for Algeria, I suspect we're only going to see more of these abominations as this radical strain of Islam creeps out of the Middle East.

Had this been a "Christian" bomb, it would probably be going at over 50 replies, most of them taking pot shots at the entire Christian faith.

A Muslim bomb? Absolute silence.

In God's name, why?

Reason for the lack of replies ;

hard to fingerpoint when there is no US presence in Algeria supressing Muslims ;)
No "dog to kick in this fight"

time, is much more anti-gay, anti-women, anti-free speech, and violent then Christianity. But we must repeat the mantra "Islam is a religion of peace", "Islam is a religion of peace", "Islam is a religion of peace." Even when our eyes tell us a different story.

Source: BBC News


A series of explosions have rocked the Algerian capital, Algiers, witnesses have said.

A first explosion was followed shortly afterwards by a second blast at the United Nations offices in the Hydra neighbourhood, a witness told the BBC.

Emergency services are at the scene. There was no immediate word of casualties or what caused the blasts.

One report said one of the explosions happened on a school bus next to the Supreme Court.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7137997.stm

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Now updated :

At least 20 people have died in two explosions in the Algerian capital, Algiers, officials have said.

11th September in Chile 1973. Subsequent aggregate number of deaths far exceeded the coincident date some years later.

well spotted.

There was also a claim/warning a couple of days ago that the next attack would be in an arab country (in fact there was a thread on DU).

.

that doesn't like the UN?

:shrug:

So basically the West stopped Algeria's elections because they were not in favor of the likely winner. A Western puppet is in the temporary ruling spot. Algerians are not happy.

nt

innocent Algerian citizens.

If they were to become an autocratic Al-Qaida client state with Sharia law, and no western influences allowed.

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) -- Two convicted terrorists who had been freed in an amnesty carried out the suicide bombings at U.N. and government buildings that killed 37 people, an Algerian security official has said.

snip
One of the bombers was a 64-year-old man in the advanced stages of cancer, while the other was a 32-year-old from a poor suburb that has produced many Islamic militants, the security official said Thursday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The government has offered amnesties to try to end a 15-year Islamic insurgency, resulting in thousands of militants turning themselves in, but sparking fierce criticism from the families of victims.

snip
Islamic insurgents have been battling Algeria's government for 15 years, but have largely focused on symbols of Algeria's military-backed government and civilians. The other target of Tuesday's attack was Algeria's Constitutional Council.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged all nations on Wednesday to stand united against terrorism, calling it "the scourge of our times."

"This attack on the U.N. is an attack on us all and our highest ideals," he said
.....

snip
The Interior Ministry said five of the dead were foreigners, including two people from China, and that three other foreign U.N. employees -- two from China and one from Lebanon -- were hospitalized.

snip
Four police officers who were guarding the Constitutional Council also were among the dead, according to police at the site Wednesday.

Two law students were also killed, said law professor Rachid Ourari, choking back tears. "They were preparing for the bar," he said.

snip
"Algerians are completely united against terrorism," Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said on France's Europe-1 radio, insisting the attacks did not portend "civil war."

Asked about the possibility of attacks elsewhere in North Africa, he said: "It's everyone who is targeted, sooner or later."

Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate review of U.N. security.

snip
"The renewed threat by al-Qaeda against French interests in North Africa cannot be ignored," the embassy said on its Web site.

Al-Qaeda has called for attacks on French and Spanish interests in North Africa.

Saudi King Abdullah told Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika the "terrorist acts will only increase the determination of the Algerian government and the people to uproot terrorism and eliminate it," the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

snip
Algeria's insurgency broke out in the early 1990s, when the army canceled the second round of the country's first multiparty elections to prevent likely victory by an Islamic fundamentalist party. Islamist armed groups then turned to force to overthrow the government, with up to 200,000 people killed in the ensuing violence.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/12/14/algeria.blast.ap/index.html

imo, in the early 90's, Algeria would have turned into an Afghanistan and morphed.
The days of Barbary Coast pirates would have returned like those off the coast of Somalia today.......
then again,
maybe not ;)

They would have only wanted a kinder,gentler Africa minus the western influence



http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=lead&lang=en&length=long&idelement=&backpage=&critere=&countryname=&rowcur=

My best thoughts to the victims and their families.