Algerian militants post video of December attack

DUBAI, Jan 21 (Reuters) An al Qaeda-linked Algerian militant group posted a video on the Internet today showing what they said was a deadly bomb attack on a bus carrying oil workers in the north African state in December.

The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) video appeared to show the bus taking an exit on a highway before being hit by a road-side blast. The film seemed to have been shot from a vehicle on the opposite side of the highway.

GSPC had claimed responsibility for the December 10 attack, which killed an Algerian and a Lebanese and injured eight people, including four Britons and an American.

In a textual header on the Web site, the group said the attack was aimed at U S energy firm Halliburton, which owned a stake in the firm that employed the oil workers -- Brown Root and Condor.

Condor Engineering, an affiliate of Algerian state energy group Sonatrach, owns a stake in the joint venture.

The tape showed that the militant group used satellite pictures and other advanced technology in planning and carrying out the attack.

It also showed militants building a home-made bomb using a gas cylinder, metal nuggets, a chemical and wireless detonators.

Earlier in January in a Web video, GSPC leader Abu Musab Abdul-Wadud called for attacks against the French and their government allies in Algeria.

An Algerian insurgency began in 1992 after the authorities cancelled elections an Islamist party was expected to win.

Now led mainly by the GSPC, the insurgency has only about 500 fighters compared to 30,000 in the 1990s, operates usually in remote mountains and parts of the vast southern desert, and is involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion.

REUTERS LL BS2101