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http://www.newsmax.com/international/al-qaida_algiers_bombing/2007/12/11/56137.html
Al-Qaida Claims Bloody Algiers Bombings
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
ALGIERS, Algeria -- Two truck bombs set off in quick succession sheared off
the fronts of U.N. offices and a government building in Algeria's capital
Tuesday, killing at least 26 people and wounding nearly 200 in an attack
claimed by an affiliate of al-Qaida.
Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, in a posting on a militant Web site,
called the U.N. offices "the headquarters of the international infidels'
den." A U.N. official said at least 11 of its employees died.
The bombs exploded 10 minutes apart around 9:30 a.m., devastating the U.N.
refugee agency and other U.N. offices along a street in the upscale Hydra
neighborhood, as well as Algeria's Constitutional Council, which rules on
the constitutionality of laws and oversees elections.
The blasts, which came on the month's 11th day, a number rich in symbolism
both for Algerians and for al-Qaida, drew swift international condemnation.
"It was horror," said Mohammed Faci, 23, whose arm was broken by the blast
as he rode a bus.
The targeting of U.N. offices was a new development in the 15-year war
between Algeria's secular government and Islamic insurgents, who previously
focused their hate on symbols of the military-backed administration and
civilians.
Al-Qaida's self-styled North African branch's Web posting said two suicide
bombers attacked the buildings with trucks carrying 1,760 pounds of
explosives each. Images were provided of the two "martyrs," identified as
Ibrahim Abu Uthman and Abdul Rahman Abu Abdul Nasser Al-Aassemi.
"This is another successful conquest ... carried out by the Knights of the
Faith with their blood in defense of the wounded nation of Islam," said the
statement, which claimed that more than 110 "Crusaders and apostates" were
killed.
Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said the Algerian government was
"certain" that al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa - formerly known as the
Salafist Group for Call and Combat - "was behind the attack."
Counterterrorism officials in Algeria's former colonial ruler, France, say
the group is drawing members from across North Africa.
Although it is thought to have only several hundred fighters, the al-Qaida
affiliate has resisted security sweeps to organize suicide bombings and
other attacks as it shifts its focus from trying to topple the government to
waging holy war and fighting Western interests.
Al-Qaida has been urging attacks on French and Spanish interests in North
Africa. In September, Osama bin Laden's chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri,
called for jihad in North Africa to "cleanse (it) of the children of France
and Spain."
Al-Qaida has struck on the 11th in several countries, including the Sept.
11, 2001, attack in the U.S. Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa claimed
responsibility for attacks last April 11 that hit the Algerian prime
minister's office and a police station, killing 33 people.
Dec. 11 itself has meaning for Algerians. On that date in 1960,
pro-independence demonstrations were held against the French colonial
rulers. The Constitutional Council is located on December 11, 1960
Boulevard.
Anne Giudicelli, a former French diplomat specializing in the Middle East
who runs the Paris-based consulting firm Terrorisc, said Tuesday's attack
bore the "clear signature" of al-Qaida-affiliated groups - in the choice of
targets and use of near simultaneous bombings.
"They attacked ... neighborhoods where there is plenty of security, which is
a way to show their strength in the war with security services," she said.
Louis Caprioli, a former assistant director of France's DST
counterintelligence agency who now works for the risk-management company
Geos, said the attack may have been a reaction to the arrest last month of
Bouderbala Fateh, a leading figure in Algeria's al-Qaida branch. The raid
found three bombs, 1,760 pounds of explosives and a rocket launcher in the
group's hide-out.
Algeria's militants "feel a need to fight back after many arrests, after
(militants) turned themselves in or were killed," he said. "They needed to
react to show their operational capacity."
After Tuesday's bombings, one damaged U.N. building stood with its insides
spilling into a street littered with the soot-covered remains of parked cars
crunched by the blast. The Constitutional Council lost chunks of its white
facade, exposing red brick underneath, and a neck-deep crater was gouged in
the road outside.
The attacks killed 26 people, an Interior Ministry statement said Tuesday
evening. It said the dead included two U.N. staffers - one Danish, the other
Senegalese - as well as three people from Asia whose nationalities were not
given. Another 177 people were injured, of which 26 were hospitalized, the
ministry said.
Other sources said the toll was higher. An official at the civil protection
agency who spoke on condition of anonymity said 45 people were killed. A
doctor at a hospital who said he was in contact with staff at other
hospitals put the death toll at a minimum of 60.
Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, quoted by the APS news agency,
called the higher figures inflated and said the government had no reason to
hide the real death toll.
"There are still a number of people unaccounted for, a number of people
trapped under the rubbble, and the latest death toll that we have is 11,"
U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.
Marie Heuze, a spokeswoman for the world body in Geneva, said that if all
the missing were dead, it would be the deadliest assault on the United
Nations since the 2003 attack on U.N. offices in Iraq that killed top U.N.
envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others. That attack was staged by
Islamic extremists who later affiliated with al-Qaida.
World leaders roundly condemned the attack. President Bush extended
condolences for those killed in "this horrible bombing," National Security
Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner condemned the attacks as
"barbarity" and said that while Algeria had made great progress in fighting
terrorism, "the sordid beast is not yet dead."
Algeria has been battling Islamic insurgents since the early 1990s, when the
army canceled the second round of the country's first multiparty elections,
stepping in to prevent a likely victory by an Islamic fundamentalist party.
Islamist armed groups then resorted to force in trying to overthrow the
government, and up to 200,000 people have been killed in the ensuing
violence.
Al-Qaida Claims Bloody Algiers Bombings
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
ALGIERS, Algeria -- Two truck bombs set off in quick succession sheared off
the fronts of U.N. offices and a government building in Algeria's capital
Tuesday, killing at least 26 people and wounding nearly 200 in an attack
claimed by an affiliate of al-Qaida.
Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, in a posting on a militant Web site,
called the U.N. offices "the headquarters of the international infidels'
den." A U.N. official said at least 11 of its employees died.
The bombs exploded 10 minutes apart around 9:30 a.m., devastating the U.N.
refugee agency and other U.N. offices along a street in the upscale Hydra
neighborhood, as well as Algeria's Constitutional Council, which rules on
the constitutionality of laws and oversees elections.
The blasts, which came on the month's 11th day, a number rich in symbolism
both for Algerians and for al-Qaida, drew swift international condemnation.
"It was horror," said Mohammed Faci, 23, whose arm was broken by the blast
as he rode a bus.
The targeting of U.N. offices was a new development in the 15-year war
between Algeria's secular government and Islamic insurgents, who previously
focused their hate on symbols of the military-backed administration and
civilians.
Al-Qaida's self-styled North African branch's Web posting said two suicide
bombers attacked the buildings with trucks carrying 1,760 pounds of
explosives each. Images were provided of the two "martyrs," identified as
Ibrahim Abu Uthman and Abdul Rahman Abu Abdul Nasser Al-Aassemi.
"This is another successful conquest ... carried out by the Knights of the
Faith with their blood in defense of the wounded nation of Islam," said the
statement, which claimed that more than 110 "Crusaders and apostates" were
killed.
Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said the Algerian government was
"certain" that al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa - formerly known as the
Salafist Group for Call and Combat - "was behind the attack."
Counterterrorism officials in Algeria's former colonial ruler, France, say
the group is drawing members from across North Africa.
Although it is thought to have only several hundred fighters, the al-Qaida
affiliate has resisted security sweeps to organize suicide bombings and
other attacks as it shifts its focus from trying to topple the government to
waging holy war and fighting Western interests.
Al-Qaida has been urging attacks on French and Spanish interests in North
Africa. In September, Osama bin Laden's chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri,
called for jihad in North Africa to "cleanse (it) of the children of France
and Spain."
Al-Qaida has struck on the 11th in several countries, including the Sept.
11, 2001, attack in the U.S. Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa claimed
responsibility for attacks last April 11 that hit the Algerian prime
minister's office and a police station, killing 33 people.
Dec. 11 itself has meaning for Algerians. On that date in 1960,
pro-independence demonstrations were held against the French colonial
rulers. The Constitutional Council is located on December 11, 1960
Boulevard.
Anne Giudicelli, a former French diplomat specializing in the Middle East
who runs the Paris-based consulting firm Terrorisc, said Tuesday's attack
bore the "clear signature" of al-Qaida-affiliated groups - in the choice of
targets and use of near simultaneous bombings.
"They attacked ... neighborhoods where there is plenty of security, which is
a way to show their strength in the war with security services," she said.
Louis Caprioli, a former assistant director of France's DST
counterintelligence agency who now works for the risk-management company
Geos, said the attack may have been a reaction to the arrest last month of
Bouderbala Fateh, a leading figure in Algeria's al-Qaida branch. The raid
found three bombs, 1,760 pounds of explosives and a rocket launcher in the
group's hide-out.
Algeria's militants "feel a need to fight back after many arrests, after
(militants) turned themselves in or were killed," he said. "They needed to
react to show their operational capacity."
After Tuesday's bombings, one damaged U.N. building stood with its insides
spilling into a street littered with the soot-covered remains of parked cars
crunched by the blast. The Constitutional Council lost chunks of its white
facade, exposing red brick underneath, and a neck-deep crater was gouged in
the road outside.
The attacks killed 26 people, an Interior Ministry statement said Tuesday
evening. It said the dead included two U.N. staffers - one Danish, the other
Senegalese - as well as three people from Asia whose nationalities were not
given. Another 177 people were injured, of which 26 were hospitalized, the
ministry said.
Other sources said the toll was higher. An official at the civil protection
agency who spoke on condition of anonymity said 45 people were killed. A
doctor at a hospital who said he was in contact with staff at other
hospitals put the death toll at a minimum of 60.
Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, quoted by the APS news agency,
called the higher figures inflated and said the government had no reason to
hide the real death toll.
"There are still a number of people unaccounted for, a number of people
trapped under the rubbble, and the latest death toll that we have is 11,"
U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.
Marie Heuze, a spokeswoman for the world body in Geneva, said that if all
the missing were dead, it would be the deadliest assault on the United
Nations since the 2003 attack on U.N. offices in Iraq that killed top U.N.
envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others. That attack was staged by
Islamic extremists who later affiliated with al-Qaida.
World leaders roundly condemned the attack. President Bush extended
condolences for those killed in "this horrible bombing," National Security
Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner condemned the attacks as
"barbarity" and said that while Algeria had made great progress in fighting
terrorism, "the sordid beast is not yet dead."
Algeria has been battling Islamic insurgents since the early 1990s, when the
army canceled the second round of the country's first multiparty elections,
stepping in to prevent a likely victory by an Islamic fundamentalist party.
Islamist armed groups then resorted to force in trying to overthrow the
government, and up to 200,000 people have been killed in the ensuing
violence.
