Car Bomb at a Barracks in Algeria Kills 28 in Second Terror Attack This Week

By HASSANE MEFTAHI Associated Press Writer

Sep 8, 2007, 9:05 AM EDT

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) --

A booby-trapped car exploded at a barracks housing coast guard officials on Saturday, killing at least 28 people in Algeria's second terror attack this week, hospital officials said.

The explosion ripped through the northern coastal town of Dellys, about 30 miles from Algiers, as the local coast guard was taking part in the morning flag-raising ceremony.

All the victims were coast guard officials, who are part of Algeria's armed forces, hospital officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. Dozens more were injured.

Recent bombings in Algeria have generated fears of a return to the mass-scale violence of the 1990s, when Algeria's Islamic insurgency peaked. The country, a U.S. ally against terrorism, has been trying to move past the 15-year insurgency that killed 200,000 people. Until recently, its efforts appeared mostly successful.

The attack came just two days after another bombing killed at least 22 in a crowd of people in eastern Algeria who were waiting to see visiting President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has devoted his eight years in office to ending the insurgency.

There was widespread speculation that Bouteflika was the intended target of that attack, though Algerian officials kept silent on the question. Police said the bomber was killed by security services after he dropped the explosives and tried to escape.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility in either attack. However, a group calling itself al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa has been active in Algeria lately. On Friday, Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni warned them that they have "one choice: turn themselves in, or die."

Algeria's insurgency broke out in 1992, after the army canceled legislative elections that a now-banned Islamic fundamentalist party was poised to win.

Widespread killing was on the wane until recently, but violence resurfaced this year after Algeria's Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or GSPC, officially linked with al-Qaida, taking the name al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa.

The group claimed responsibility for other attacks this year, including an April suicide bombing outside the prime minister's office in Algiers and a simultaneous attack on a police station that killed 32 people.

Al-Qaida's Algerian branch also said it was responsible for another attack in July, when a suicide bomber blew up a refrigerated truck inside a military encampment southeast of the Algerian capital, killing 10 soldiers.

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