ALGIERS ATTACK: INTERNATIONAL OR INTERNAL TERRORISM?

ALGERIA: Misna; “In Algeria nobody believes this Al-Qaida business, even if it were true”, said an Algerian journalist to MISNA, speaking about the double bombing attack in Algiers. “Personally, I believe that the attacks are linked to the Algerian political context. The country is emerging from local elections that have disappointed many people and the government is trying ’beating the bendir’ (’drum’, i.e. it is getting ready) to find a third mandate for president Abdelaziz Bouteflika. In fact, the explosion at Ben Aknoun had the Constitutional Council as its main target; it was personally inaugurated by president Bouteflika just a few weeks ago and he shall have the task of validating the candidatures” said the source, who said the involvement of students in the attack was “by chance”.

“I believe that the bus full of students hit by the explosion happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time” said the journalist. As for the attack in the Hydra quarter, there are many more questions. “The second attack is more mysterious. Hydra is widely considered to be the safest area of the whole of Algiers; it is home to embassies, international entities and luxury houses. To target that area means to target a bastion of power and to demonstrate its vulnerability” said the source, who observed that after last April’s attack against the government building using some 200kg of explosives. Interviewed by ’Bbc’, the local director of UNHCR Guterres said that the UN building in Emile Payen street was the target of the Hydra quarter attack. The account of a witness partially confirms this hypothesis: "a white van headed straight for the UN headquarters’ main entrance, causing half of the building to collapse. I managed to save myself because I left my office, which ended up being completely destroyed. There is no doubt that the attack was directed against the UN". The witness specified that the target was not the UNHCR building but the UN one”. In the evening, the Algerian minister of the interior, Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, said in a press conference that he was sure that the attack was led by the GSPC (Salafi Group for the Predication and Combat), the group that was supposed to have changed its name to Al Qaida for the Islamic Maghreb and that is said to have claimed responsibility for the attacks in a website. Meanwhile, the official bulletin said that 22 people were killed, 12 of them died at the UNHCR attack and 177 were wounded. [AB]