Two Algerians, aged 30 and 64, carried out Tuesday’s twin car-bomb attacks in Algiers that killed scores of people, the Algerian daily Liberte reported on Thursday.
Citing security sources, the paper said that Rabah Bechla (64) was aboard the lorry that exploded in front of the offices of various United Nations agencies, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), killing at least 11 UN staff workers.
The young man reported by a witness to be driving the vehicle that exploded in front of the seat of the Algerian Constitutional Council was identified as Larbi Charef (30).
Liberte said that Bechla, who came from Reghaia, about 30km east of Algiers, joined the Islamic terrorist campaign against the Algerian government in 1996.
He eventually became a member of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the predecessor organisation of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s bombings.
He was considered a minor figure in the organisation, the daily said.
Charef, a native of Algiers, had been arrested and convicted for providing logistical support for terrorist groups in 2005, and was sentenced to a year in prison. He was pardoned in 2006 as part of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s national reconciliation programme.
According to official figures, at least 31 people were killed in the bombings, including five foreigners. Hospital sources put the number of victims as high as 72, with about 200 injured. — Sapa-dpa