Al Qaeda claims deadly Algiers bombings

Bombs killed 30 people in Algeria's capital yesterday, attacks claimed by al Qaeda that raised fears the north African oil exporter was slipping back into the intense political violence of the 1990s.

One of the blasts, believed to be a suicide bombing, ripped part of the façade off the Prime Minister's headquarters in the centre of Algiers. A second bomb hit Bab Ezzouar on its eastern outskirts, the official APS news agency said.

The Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the bombings in an Internet statement, which also included a claim of responsibility for attacks in neighbouring Morocco and pictures of three "martyrs".

The claim could not be immediately verified but the group, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has taken responsibility for a number of deadly attacks on security forces and foreigners in Algeria since January.

Hospital sources put the toll from the two bombings at 30. Earlier, APS put the toll at 23 dead with 162 wounded. Leila Aissaoui, 25, stood crying near the government palace.

"I thought explosions in Algiers were over," she said. "I made a big mistake and I can't accept this."

Algeria descended into violence in 1992 after the then military-backed authorities scrapped a parliamentary election, which an Islamist political party was set to win. Up to 200,000 people were killed in the ensuing bloodshed.

That violence subsided in recent years following amnesties for insurgents, but rumbles on in mountains east of Algiers.

Residents said yesterday was the first time since the 1990s that a powerful bomb targeted the centre of the Mediterranean city where police had stepped up security following a rise in attacks by insurgents in the countryside.

The blast at the prime minister's headquarters gouged a gaping hole in the six-storey building, shattering windows and showering rubble on to cars for blocks around. Police sources said the attack was a suicide bombing.

Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, who has been campaigning in recent weeks for May 17 parliamentary elections, was quoted by APS as calling the attack a "criminal and cowardly act".