Wednesday, July 11, 2007


ALGIERS, Algeria, Jul. 11, 2007 (AP Online delivered by Newstex) -- A suicide bomber blew up a refrigerated truck packed with explosives inside a military encampment southeast of the Algerian capital Wednesday, killing 10 soldiers and wounding up to 35, a security official said.

The truck drove into the post on the edge of Lakhdaria, a town 48 miles southeast of Algiers in the restive region of Kabylie, as the doors opened in the morning for arriving personnel, the security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the bombing.

The official said eight people died in the initial blast and two more soldiers died on their way to a hospital, bringing the total number of deaths to 10 with 35 injured.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the biggest since suicide bombings three months ago in Algiers that killed 30 people and injured more than 200. An extremist group called al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, formerly the GSPC, claimed responsibility for that attack.

The suicide bomber in Wednesday's attack was one of four youths who joined the group about a month ago, the security official said.

The explosion sparked panic in a region that saw widespread violence during the 1990s at the height of an Islamic insurgency. Security remains tight in the area.

Soldiers fanned out throughout the region after the bombing and security was increased at the Algiers airport with thorough checks of all cars and passengers that caused extended flight delays. Extra roadblock checkpoints went up around the capital.

The bombing came on the opening day of the Africa Games, one of the continent's biggest sporting events with venues in Algiers and the towns of Blida, south of the capital, and Boumerdes, to the east. Lakhdaria sits midway between Blida and Boumerdes.

Thousands of athletes from 52 countries have come to compete in 27 sports. The games are held every four years.

More than 8,000 police have been deployed since July 2 for the games at 36 sites used for the event, according to the daily Liberte.

Algeria has been seeking to turn the page on an Islamic insurgency that has killed as many as 200,000 people since the army called off elections in 1992 that an Islamist party was expected to win. While large-scale violence died down in the 1990s, scattered attacks by the al-Qaida affiliate have mounted in recent months.

Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa claimed responsibility for a December attack that targeted a bus carrying foreign employees of an affiliate of the U.S. company Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) , killing an Algerian and a Lebanese citizen. The group has also threatened France.

Wednesday's attack came the morning after French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Algiers.

Last week, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika gave a saber-rattling speech to army officers on the country's Independence Day, denouncing 'enemies of the people' trying to disrupt national unity.

That same day, a bomb hit the convoy of a top official in the Tizi-Ouzou region east of the capital. Security officials blamed the attack on al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa.

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Associated Press writers Aomar Ouali and Aidan Lewis contributed to this report.

Newstex ID: AP-0001-18062187


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