Al Qaeda has now claimed responsibility for the bombing of an Algerian police station that killed 4 policemen and injured at least 20 people (8 of the injured are also police officers). This was vintage al Qaeda car bombing - the car missiled into the front of the police station and the explosion ripped the front of the building away. Also typical of al Qaeda are these initial strikes at government and police institutions - Algeria is a prime target of al Qaeda and they typically try to erode away at the law enforcement infrastructure.
Original full story is here.
Original full story is here.
Algeria Car Bomb Kills 4 Police Officers
Jan 2 12:45 PM US/Eastern
By HASSANE MEFTAHI
Associated Press Writer
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - A car bomb exploded near a police station in a town east of the Algerian capital Wednesday, killing at least four officers and ripping off the building's facade, witnesses said.
The blast followed twin suicide bombings on Dec. 11 at U.N. offices and a government building that killed at least 37 people in the capital of Algiers.
A journalist and another resident in the city of Naciria said the car sped toward the police station and exploded. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety.
The Interior Ministry said the attack killed at least four police officers and injured 20, including eight police officers. The ministry provided no details other than to say that the bombing was near the police station in the town about 45 miles east of Algiers.
The explosion tore off the front of the police station and damaged neighboring buildings. Security forces cordoned off the rubble-strewn ruins.
The suicide bombings in December and others in April were claimed by al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, which emerged out of an alliance between Osama bin Laden's international terror network and a local Islamic insurgency movement known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat.
Security forces have been on maximum alert since earlier this week, after three trucks were stolen in the Algiers region, the newspaper Liberte reported Wednesday. The vehicles included a fuel tanker, and officials fear they might be used in suicide attacks, the report said.
Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa has increasing used vehicles packed with explosives to deliver its strikes. In July, a suicide bomber blew up a truck inside a military barracks southeast of Algiers, killing 10 soldiers. Two months later, at least 28 people died after an explosives-packed vehicle rammed into a coast guard barracks in the northern town of Dellys.
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