Algeria holds 12 Islamic militants over bombings

ALGIERS, May 20 (Reuters) Algerian security forces have arrested 12 suspected Islamic militants accused of links to triple suicide bombings last month and other attacks claimed by al Qaeda's north African wing, official media today said.

The arrests followed information given by a suspect captured some two weeks after the April 11 bombings in Algiers that killed 33 people, state radio quoted a security source as saying.

The suspects were also involved in truck bomb attacks on October 30 on two police stations that killed six people, it said.

Police also seized large quantities of explosives and bomb-making equipment.

Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC, has said it was behind all of the attacks.

The rebel support network was acting under orders from the group's local leader, Harek Zoheir, also known as Sofiane Fassila, who masterminded these attacks, the radio added.

The arrests allowed the seizure of more than 9 tonnes of acid and large quantities of chemical products and electronic components used for remote detonation of bombs, it said.

Police also seized products used in making explosives in two garages in Boumerdes province, some 50 km east of the capital Algiers.

Government troops, on alert since the April bombings, have killed 26 rebels in the past few days in Boumerdes and neighbouring Tizi Ouzou province, newspaper reports said.

Conflict broke out in the oil and gas exporting country in 1992 after military-backed authorities scrapped parliamentary elections that an Islamist party was set to win. Up to 200,000 people have been killed in the bloodshed.

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