Car bomb kills 17 in Algeria-official agency

DELLYS, Algeria, Sep 8 (Reuters) A car bomb killed 17 people in eastern Algeria today, the official APS agency said, two days after a suicide blast condemned by the government as an attempt to wreck efforts to end political violence.

Residents in the Mediterranean port town of Dellys 100 km (62 miles) east of Algiers reported hearing a large explosion.

State television reported that the blast, which also injured 30 people, took place near a coastguards barracks.

Shouting ''Stay away, Stay away'', police about 200 metres (yards) from the site barred reporters from approaching the scene.

A resident, Moussa Dahmani, who lives near the port, said: ''I heard a big, big explosion. The television is saying there are about 17 killed, but I am sure there are more, because the sound of the explosion was very big.'' Another resident Saeed Hamdaoui, 28, said: ''I heard a big blast at about eight this morning and I found out that it targeted the port of the city, probably a military facility there.'' ''Then we heard ambulances.'' The blast happened two days after a suicide bombing in Batna town that killed at least 20 people.

The bomber in Batna blew himself up among a crowd waiting to see the president arrive on a scheduled visit to the town 430 km southeast of Algiers.

It was the first time a suicide attacker in Algeria had detonated a bomb strapped to his body, rather than using a car bomb, Algerians say.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika blamed Islamist rebels for the Batna blast, denouncing them as ''criminals'' trying to scuttle his policy of national reconciliation.

The policy is aimed at ending 15 years of fighting between the army and groups trying to set up a purist Islamic state.

APRIL BOMBINGS Former colonial power France condemned today's blast.

The foreign ministry said France sent ''the most sincere condolences to the families of the victims, to those close to them and to the Algerian authorities and the Algerian people, plunged into mourning by this new expression of terrorism.'' Conflict broke out in Algeria in 1992 after military-backed authorities scrapped parliamentary elections that an Islamist party was set to win. The authorities had feared an Islamic revolution.

Up to 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed.

Political violence has subsided in recent years but a hard core of about 500 rebels, now grouped in the so-called al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, continues to fight mainly in the Kabylie region east of the capital Algiers.

The group claimed responsibility for triple suicide bombings in Algiers on April 11 that killed 33 people, and also for a July 11 suicide truck bombing east of the Algerian capital that killed eight soldiers.

The United States has taken a close interest in counter- terrorism operations in Algeria and across the Maghreb region, which it considers a potential focus for al Qaeda.

Al Qaeda's No 2 commander, Egyptian cleric Ayman al-Zawahri, referred to north Africa in a video broadcast on the Internet in July.

He said there was no single recipe for change but that ''force must be an element in the pursuit of change,'' whether through a military coup, a popular uprising or civil disobedience against corrupt governments.

REUTERS LPB RK1840