Spectre of civil war returns as al-Qaeda suicide bombings kill 67Adam Sage in Paris
Two car bombs struck central Algiers yesterday, killing at least 67 people, destroying United Nations offices and targeting a bus full of law students outside the Supreme Court in a coordinated strike blamed on al-Qaeda.
The destruction raised the spectre of a return to the civil war that ravaged the North African country in the 1990s. At least two of the dead were foreigners — a Senegalese and a Dane working for the UN. As rescuers pulled out at least five people alive from the rubble, the UN said that four of its employees had died and 14 were missing. More than 170 people were injured.
Commentators said that the targets appeared to confirm al-Qaeda’s plan to subsume Algeria’s internal conflict into its war on the West. The date — December 11 — also pointed to Osama bin Laden’s signature, they said.
Al-Qaeda later claimed responsibilty for the blast, saying its North African wing carried out the attack, which involved cars loaded with 800kg of explosives each.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article3037382.ece