Two dead in simultaneous Algeria truck bombings

ALGIERS, Oct 30: Two people were killed and 17 wounded when Islamist rebels exploded truck bombs outside two police stations east of Algiers overnight, witnesses said today.

The simultaneous attacks in the town of Reghaia 30 km east of the capital Algiers and the eastern Algiers suburb of Dergana were the most elaborate in years by Islamist groups seeking to set up a purist Islamic state, they said.

The explosion in Reghaia burned parts of the two-storey building, shattering windows for several blocks and hurled parts of the truck more than 100 metres from the scene, they said.

Sporadic clashes between Islamist guerrillas and security forces normally take place in isolated rural areas of the oil-producing country.

Residents said the Reghaia attack began when gunmen firing automatic weapons hurled a grenade at the entrance to the building at about midnight.

At the same time, accomplices parked a truck rigged with explosives at the side of the building and then made their getaway in a car, before setting off the bomb apparently using a remote-controlled device, the residents said.

Islamists began an armed revolt in 1992 after the then military backed authorities, fearing an Iran-style revolution, scrapped a parliamentary election that an Islamist political party, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), was set to win.

Up to 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the ensuing bloodshed. The violence has sharply subsided in the past few years.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has vowed to crush militants refusing to surrender after a six-month amnesty expired on August 31. The FIS remains banned and a state of emergency first imposed in 1992 is still in force.

REUTERS