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April 11, 2007

Algeria: Islamists Claim Responsibility For Deadly Bombings

Earlier today, two blasts caused by suicide bombers killed 23 people in Algeria, state the International Herald Tribune and CBS/WCCO. Other sources give different figures. Associated Press in the Times states that six people were injured in up to seven bombings in the nation, with 30 injured. The Independent states that 30 people were killed and more than 160 were injured.

The blasts appeared to be coordinated, with the first attack taking place at 10.45 am outside the Prime Minister's office in the capital, Algiers. Shortly afterward, three car bombs went off at a police station at Bab Ezzouar on the outskirts of Algiers.

A fourth suicide bomber was shot dead by police. The group the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat or GPSC, which has now renamed itself as Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, claimed responsibility for the blasts on its website. The Maghreb or Maughreb is the title for the North African states.

On Sunday April 8 Islamist militants opened fire upon a military patrol in Ain Defla Province in the northwest of the country. Nine soldiers and six Islamists were killed. On March 3, a bus full of employees of a Russian company was subjected to a bomb blast, in which a Russian engineer and three Algerians were killed.

There will be legislative elections in Algeria on May 17, and it is believed by some analysts that Islamists were stepping up their attacks in the run-up to these elections.

Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem was not hurt in the explosion outside his office, which ripped a hole in the side of the building. He had offered an amnesty to GSPC/Al Qaeda in 2005, but even though a referendum took place on September 29 2005 and the electorate chose to support this amnesty, the Islamists had immediately stated on the internet: "The Jihad will go on ... we have promised God to continue the Jihad and the combat."

The rejection claimed to be the words of Abou Mossab Abdelouadoud (Abu Mossab Abdelwadoud), whose real name is Abdelmalek Droukdel, the leader of GSPC. Within days of this announcement, which had been made on October 1, 2005, killings of civilians and military personnel recommenced.

After today's attack, Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem said: "The Algerian people stretched out a hand to them, and they respond with a terrorist act." This attack is said to be the worst terror attack in Algeria for some time. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people, most of them civilians, have died at the hands of Islamists since 1992, when a coup prevented an elected Islamist government from taking power.

GSPC cells have been operating in Italy, Belgium, France, German the Costa del Sol in Spain, and even Norway. The group has long been claimed to have links to Al Qaeda. On September 11, 2006, Ayman al Zawahiri, deputy leader of Al Qaeda, stated that GSPC had joined his group. On September 14, 2006 GSPC officially declared its ties with Al Qaeda. A statement on its website, claiming to come from Abdelwadoud, read: "We pledge allegiance to Sheikh Osama Bin Laden... We will pursue our jihad in Algeria. Our soldiers are at his call so that he may strike who and where he likes." There followed threats to attack France.

The change of GSPC's name came about in January. Al Jazeera claimed it had received a phonee call claiming that the group had claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Algerian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which goes under the name "Movement for the Society of Peace" distanced itself from the attacks. Abu Jarra Sultani leads the Muslim Brotherhood in Algeria, and is a cabinet minister. He said the Brotherhood "strongly condemns this terrorist act."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 11, 2007 10:15 PM

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