Since we all know Al Qaeda is partly the fiction, and partly the asset, of the CIA, we can always recognize a false flag operation when Al Qaeda is blamed. rkm -------------------------------------------------------- Original source URL: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121107A.shtml http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-algeria12dec12,0,4805154.story Car Bombs Kill at Least 22 in Algerian Capital By Jeffrey Fleishman The Los Angeles Times Tuesday 11 December 2007 Experts say the attacks appear to be the work of an Al Qaeda-linked group. UN workers are among the dead. Cairo - Two bombs killed at least 22 people, including United Nations workers, in the Algerian capital today, and experts said they appeared to be the work of an Al Qaeda-linked group seeking to overthrow the government of the long-troubled North African nation. No one claimed responsibility for the near-simultaneous explosions in Algiers, one in front of the Constitutional Council, the second near a U.N. compound. But the timing and targets suggest they were carried out by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, one of the region's most proficient terrorist organizations, according to political analysts and security experts. The Algerian press agency quoted Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni as saying the explosions occurred about 9:30 a.m., erupting from two vehicles. At least 10 people were killed when a bus carrying college students blew up in front of the new Constitutional Council building, near the Supreme Court. The council oversees the country's elections, which are often the scene of Islamist attacks. Minutes later, in a high-security neighborhood housing embassies, a blast from a small truck ripped through the U.N. compound. It destroyed the U.N.'s Development Program office and severely damaged offices of the High Commissioner for Refugees. The U.N. said at least 12 staff members, some presumed dead, were missing under the debris. "For the attack which took place outside [the U.N. building], it seems that it was carried out by a suicide bomber," Zerhouni told state radio. He said 22 people were killed and 177 wounded in the attacks. Those figures were significantly lower than media reports, which quoted hospital and police sources as suggesting that as many as 67 people died. Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem told reporters: "These are crimes that targeted innocent people. Students and schoolchildren were among the victims. Nothing can justify the crime." It appeared to be the worst violence to hit the Algerian capital in a decade. One Algerian journalist, who asked not to be named, said by telephone today: "The United Nations building was nearly destroyed and is falling apart. The fire brigades are here. There are still people trapped inside. Windows were smashed and there was blood in the streets." Mostafa Khalafy, a Morocco-based terrorism expert, told Al Jazeera cable news network, "The methodology, the timing and the tools say that the organization of Al Qaeda in Maghreb stands behind this operation." He added that "these political and security targets show that the organization is still strong and capable of hitting the furthest point inside Algeria, of upgrading its tools and of adapting with the security policies that Algerian government implements." The bombings occurred on the 11th day of the month, the day of other prominent Al Qaeda attacks, including the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. and the March 11, 2004, train bombings in Madrid. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was previously known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), which emerged from the remnants of anti-government militants from Algeria's 1990s civil war. The war, which killed an estimated 200,000 people, began after the government canceled elections the main Islamic party was expected to win. Many GSPC militants, including scores who trained in Afghanistan, accepted amnesty packages. The most committed members refused to surrender and are believed to be coordinating with radical networks across North Africa. "The GSPC is one of the few groups to effectively straddle the divide between local and international Islamist terrorism and to give equal priority to attacking both the 'near' and 'far' enemies," according to a report this year by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The report says the group has sent many fighters to Iraq and has vowed attacks in Europe, especially against French targets. Algeria was a French colony until its independence in 1962. Today's bombings come after a speech by Ayman Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's deputy leader, this year in which he asked attackers to target France, Spain and Algeria, according to Al Jazeera. The Algerian group has ideological ties to Al Qaeda, but its strategic and operational links to Osama bin Laden's network are unclear. Diaa Rashwan, a Cairo-based terrorism expert, said Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb was the only organization in Algeria capable of carrying out such well-coordinated attacks. "This is not the first time the U.N. has been targeted by Al Qaeda," said Rashwan, referring to the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in 2003. "Al Qaeda holds the U.N. as a party to the conflict and believes it is a tool in the hands of the U.S. This has always been clear in Bin Laden's and Ayman al Zawahiri's discourse." He added that the explosions were meant to send a message: "Al Qaeda is retreating in important spots, namely in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.... It is left with only one region, which is the Maghreb in general and Algeria in particular, to make up for its weakness elsewhere and prove its presence. This has been proven by the series of bombings that occurred in the region throughout this year." Terrorist strikes across Algeria, including an attack by a suicide bomber that injured two French construction workers traveling in a convoy, have intensified. In April, triple suicide bombs killed 33 in Algiers. In September, about 50 people died in separate attacks, including a bombing at a coast guard barracks and another in a crowd in southeast Algeria that was awaiting a visit by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. -------- •••@••.••• Times staff writer Sebastian Rotella in Madrid, special correspondent Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo and a special correspondent in Algeria contributed to this report. 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