Explosions rock Algerian capital

[frigidmagi]

BBC

Two blasts in Algeria's capital Algiers have killed at least 23 people and injured 160 - one exploding near the prime minister's office.

A caller claiming to represent al-Qaeda in the Maghreb told an Arabic TV channel that his group had carried out the attacks.

There has been no independent verification of the claim.

Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, who was unharmed, called the attacks a "cowardly and criminal act".

At least nine people died and at least 32 were wounded in the car bombing outside his offices in Algiers.

Another explosion at a police station in the east killed at least eight people and left at least 50 injured.

The official APS agency, quoting the Algerian authorities, reported the higher toll, but did not give a full breakdown of how many were killed in each of the attacks.

'Cowardice and betrayal'

Violent attacks have been increasing in Algeria since the main Islamist rebel group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), changed its name to the al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb in January.

Al-Jazeera TV said this was the group that had claimed responsibility for Wednesday's violence.

The city centre explosion was so loud it could be heard up to 10km (six miles) away, residents said.

Government employees were injured by flying glass and debris, which spread up to 300m (yards) from the site of the blasts.

Ambulances went to the scene and police blocked entry to the prime minister's office, which also houses the offices of the interior minister.

The police station attack happened in the eastern suburb of Bab Ezzouar.

Speaking on Algerian radio, Mr Belkhadem denounced the bombings, which come as the government says it is working towards national reconciliation.

"This is a crime, a cowardly act," Mr Belkhadem said.

In February, the GSPC carried out a series of bomb attacks on police stations - but the BBC's Middle East analyst, Roger Hardy, says car bombings in the capital itself have become rare.

He says the Algerian government has prided itself on the fact that the vicious killings of the mid-1990s - the product of a brutal war between the security forces and a variety of armed Islamist groups - are now a thing of the past.

That violence began when the army took power and cancelled elections which an Islamist opposition group was poised to win.

Our correspondent says analysts believe the GSPC has a more ambitious agenda and is building up networks in neighbouring Morocco and Tunisia - as well as among Muslim militants in Europe.

Last August, Algeria offered Islamist militants a six-month amnesty on condition of surrender.

Once again we see A-Q's great ideological appeal. We have consitiantly failed to even try to meet that appeal in the Middle East. We must do better.