43 people killed in bloodbath

[Henia 11]

At least 43 people were killed when a car laden with explosives rammed into a police academy in Algeria, the country's interior ministry said today.

The ministry said that a further 38 people were wounded in the attack, which happened early today, in the Issers district of Boumerdes, 35 miles east of the capital, Algiers.

The attack occurred as young applicants were in line, waiting to register at the local police academy. A security official described the incident as "a bloodbath".

No immediate claim for responsibility was reported, but Algeria has suffered regular attacks blamed on militants linked to al-Qaida.

In the past 18 months more than 200 people have been killed in Algeria in attacks claimed by or suspected to be the work of the group.

An al-Qaida car bomb killed 37 people at a coast guard barracks in the port of Dellys, east of Algiers, in September last year. Three months later two blasts killed at least 41 people, including 17 UN staff at UN offices in Algiers. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attack.

The group has links with like-minded militants in other Maghreb countries and is the most effective rebel group in the country.

Conflict with Islamist rebels in Algeria began in 1992 when a military-backed government scrapped legislative elections that a radical Islamic party was poised to win.

The bloodshed has subsided in recent years and in 2006 the government freed more than 2,000 former Islamist guerrillas under an amnesty designed to put an end to the conflict.

But a hard core of several hundred rebels fights on as members of al-Qaida's north Africa wing.

The group's leader, Abdelmalek Droukdel, told the New York Times last month that increasing numbers of young men around the region were joining the group out of persistent poverty and anger at what he called the West's war on Islam

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/1...ed=networkfront

[sweet_peach 0]

The madness needs to stop. Enough is enough when it comes to these kinds of attacks

[Tunisia216 2]

I totally agree!! It is madness and how sad that these men were waiting in line, from what I understand, to try to get jobs and make a career

Allah be with them and their families... So horrible!

The madness needs to stop. Enough is enough when it comes to these kinds of attacks

[polarbear 0]

I totally agree!! It is madness and how sad that these men were waiting in line, from what I understand, to try to get jobs and make a career

Allah be with them and their families... So horrible!

The madness needs to stop. Enough is enough when it comes to these kinds of attacks

No Kidding, these attatcks seem so random.... just like, hmmm, where would we kill the most people? Not even stratically important, kinda useless it seems - what's the point? I just don't get it

[Nothing1234 2]

[Henia 11]

Well groups like Al-Qaeda are set on breaking the stucture of countries in the Grand Maghreb these days. The areas mostly hit is Boumerdes, just outside of Alger (capital) Poor empoverished (like in Moroccan bombings) are tragedied to be kamakazes with rewards of money (for their families) but also many have been foreigners (reason for the tight security on foreigners coming into Algeria)

But this bombing is the deadilest out of all of them! Most of these bombing occur near military centers and government offices. But still innocent civilians are dying.

If you ask the average Algerian- they donnot condemn these types of terror attacks ... and thinking back that Algeria is one of the only countries who has been able to rid (for the most part) terrorism from within ... now is having to deal with imported terrorism of the extremists. But I am hopeful with her history she can get rid of this with time!

All my prayer too with the families!

[Henia 11]

I totally agree!! It is madness and how sad that these men were waiting in line, from what I understand, to try to get jobs and make a career

Allah be with them and their families... So horrible!

The madness needs to stop. Enough is enough when it comes to these kinds of attacks

No Kidding, these attatcks seem so random.... just like, hmmm, where would we kill the most people? Not even stratically important, kinda useless it seems - what's the point? I just don't get it

They are not random at all! They are concentrated to few areas in Algeria - Boumerdes, Bouira, Medea and Tizi ouzo. And they are set off by the goverment's efforts to rid the country of terrorism and the round-up before Ramadan. What 2 weeks dozen or more terrorists were caught and killed by civilians in Tizi ouzo ... and the courts have sent down over 250 death sentences to terrorists ... could this be a show of power?