Algeria’s prime minister vowed that national elections will go ahead next month despite suicide bombing attacks claimed by al-Qaeda killed 24 people and wounded 222 others in the capital.
”The objective was a media provocation shortly before the election,” scheduled for May 17, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem told al-Arabiya television late on Wednesday.
”Those who resort to violence exclude themselves from the political process and elections form part of that political process.”
The bombings, which followed closely after suicide blasts in neighbouring Morocco, were claimed by al-Qaeda’s branch in North Africa, which published photographs of what it said were the three Algiers suicide bombers in an internet statement.
The statement on an Islamist website often used by the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden said the car bombings killed at least 53 people.
The first of Wednesday’s attacks was carried out by a bomber who drove an explosives-laden car into a guard post outside the government headquarters in central Algiers, police said.
At least 12 people were killed and 135 injured, according to the civil defence department.
Minutes later, bombers driving two cars triggered explosions in the eastern suburb of Bab Ezzouar, on the road to the international airport and not far from one of Algeria’s largest universities.
Another 12 people were killed and 87 wounded in the blasts that demolished an electricity sub-station and badly damaged a police station, the civil defence department said.
The attackers were seeking to ”terrorise the people” of Algeria, Belkhadem said. ”But they know that the Algerian people do not accept their approach and their style, as they reject violence and terrorism.”
World leaders reacted with horror to the bombings.
French President Jacques Chirac condemned what he called the ”terrible attacks” in a message of solidarity to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Algeria was until 1962 a French colony.
The Arab League condemned ”these terrorist acts and what they represent and aim to achieve.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed ”sorrow and indignation”.
In Washington, both the White House and the State Department condemned the attacks.
”These horrific acts indiscriminately killed members of the security services and civilians alike,” said State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack.
The Iranian government called the attacks ”inhuman and hideous”.
In Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said: ”These were odious and cowardly acts.”
The blast at the government headquarters, which houses the prime minister’s office and other ministries, wrecked the facade of the eight-storey complex.
The blasts came as the Algerian authorities are struggling to curb an upswing in Islamist activity.
At least 33 people, including about 15 security officers, have been killed in clashes with Islamist militants since the beginning of April, according to official figures and media reports.
In February 2006, the government offered an amnesty to any Islamists who surrendered.
The Algerian army has been involved in a 20-day offensive in the eastern region of Kabylie against the al-Qaeda group that claimed Wednesday’s attack.
Previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, it recently changed its name to reflect a direct affiliation with Osama bin Laden’s network.
Algeria is not the only north African state battling militant activity, with neighbours Tunisia and Morocco facing a similar challenge from Islamist groups.
In Morocco on Wednesday, police hunted 10 possible suicide bombers in Casablanca, a day after three suspected militants blew themselves up as they were being chased.
”For a while, it seemed that the authorities in [these] countries had broken the back of the Islamist terrorist networks,” said Magnus Ranstorp, a specialist at Sweden’s national defence college.
”But it looks that these fronts have been re-energised, revitalised, perhaps because of the severity of the crackdowns.
That is what we are seeing today essentially: a sort of reaction to these offensives,” Ranstorp told AFP. – Sapa-AFP