Suicide Attacks Mark Turn in Algeria

Insurgents Seen Taking Cues From Global Al-Qaeda

BERLIN, April 12 -- In the context of Algeria's long-running civil war and insurgency, Wednesday's bombings added just a blip to the death toll: 33 people reported killed, on top of an estimated 200,000 who had lost their lives since 1992.

But the new violence stood out for another reason. In a country where assassinations, car bombs, throat-slittings and hijackings have long been used to terrorize the population, these were the first known suicide attacks.

Counterterrorism officials and analysts said the strikes against the Government Palace in Algiers and a police base outside the capital were the clearest evidence yet that the local insurgent movement in Algeria is now taking its cues from the global al-Qaeda network.

"This is not a tactic that has been used by the Algerian armed groups at all," Hugh Roberts, a writer and leading specialist on North African affairs, said in a telephone interview from Cairo. "Algeria has a tradition of guerrilla warfare, but not suicide attacks. It's a change in behavior that is quite far-reaching."

Responsibility for Wednesday's bombings, which also injured more than 200 people, was asserted hours later by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a new affiliate of the global network founded by Osama bin Laden. Maghreb is an Arabic word for the region of North Africa stretching from Mauritania to Libya.

The group formerly was known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, which was formed in 1998 to overthrow the Algerian government but changed its name in January to reflect its new partnership with al-Qaeda.

Leaders of the Algerian organization and al-Qaeda's founders had issued public statements since 2004 indicating their willingness to work together, culminating in an announcement last September by al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, that a formal alliance had been sealed.

On Thursday, Algerian authorities disputed suggestions that al-Qaeda's involvement in the region was a sign of worse things to come. "The name of this group doesn't change a thing," Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said as he toured hospitals to visit victims of the bombings. "The group behind these attacks is isolated and its members have been reduced and are up against a wall."

Zerhouni blamed the bombings on Abdelmalek Droukdel, a longtime Algerian guerrilla leader who now serves as the self-proclaimed emir of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. But the minister acknowledged that authorities have been unable to stop him. "Neutralizing him could take several weeks or several years," he said.

Wednesday's bombings were the deadliest attacks in the capital in a decade. They began at 10:45 a.m., when a Renault Clio sped up to the gate of the Government Palace and triggered a detonation that ripped off much of the building's facade. The heavily guarded building contains the offices of Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem as well as the Interior Ministry. Belkhadem and other senior ministers were not present.

Minutes later, two car bombs exploded simultaneously outside a police special forces base in Bab Ezzouar, a suburb of Algiers, blasting deep craters in the ground and damaging the building. Fifty-seven of the wounded remained hospitalized Thursday, according to the Algerian press agency APS.

Algerian authorities released few details about the attacks and did not confirm that suicide bombers were to blame. Witnesses, however, reported seeing drivers behind the wheels of the cars. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb also posted a statement on the Internet identifying three men who it said carried out the attacks as "martyrs" and offering other details of the operations.

Later Wednesday afternoon, security forces in Algiers defused a bomb left in a black Mercedes parked near the home of Ali Tounsi, director general of the Algerian national police, according to local press reports. The bomb was equipped with a mobile phone and designed to be detonated remotely, Algerian newspapers reported. Tounsi's residence is in a diplomatic district of the capital, not far from several European embassies.

Coordinated suicide attacks are an al-Qaeda hallmark and were used to greatest effect in the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings in the United States. Since then, the network has exported the tactic to Iraq, Europe and elsewhere in North Africa. Al-Qaeda is also blamed for introducing suicide bombers to Afghanistan, where they have caused an increasing number of casualties in the past year.

Algerian counterterrorism officials have become increasingly concerned in recent months that local fighters have left the country to train in al-Qaeda camps in Iraq or elsewhere in North Africa and have returned to carry out operations.

An estimated several hundred Algerians have gone to Iraq to fight since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003; this year alone, more than 150 Algerians have been detained in Syria and extradited back to their home country on suspicion of attempting to cross into Iraq, according to Algerian press reports.

The adoption of suicide attacks and other recent changes in tactics are strong indications that al-Qaeda trainers are directly influencing operations by their Algerian affiliate, said Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA unit dedicated to tracking al-Qaeda founder bin Laden.

"They're either going for training or else al-Qaeda is sending trainers to them," said Scheuer, now a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation. "My suspicion is that the training has been going on for some time. I would suspect that the proficiency and efficiency and lethality of the attacks will increase."