Algerian suicide bomb kills four

[frigidmagi]

BBC

A suicide attack on a police station in Algeria has killed at least four officers in Naciria, east of Algiers.

At least 20 people, including eight policemen, were also wounded in the bombing, the interior ministry says.

There has been an upsurge in violence in Algeria in recent months. About 40 people died in suicide attacks in Algiers in December.

Al-Qaeda's North African wing said it carried out those twin bombings - whose victims included 17 UN staff.

The Naciria attack occurred at 0700 (0600 GMT) on Wednesday.

"A suicide bomber drove into the police station at the wheel of a booby-trapped car, causing major damage to the building," an eyewitness told AFP news agency.

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No group has so far said claimed the attack.

Violence has increased in Algeria since the main Islamist rebel group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), changed its name to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb early last year.

The group has its roots in the bitter Algerian civil war of the 1990s.

Besides the 11 December bombing of UN offices, it said it carried out attacks that killed more than 50 people in early September, and blasts that killed at least 23 people in the capital in April.