Algeria: 9 suicide attacks since April 11

The Palace of Government, the Constitutional Council, the UN agency , the Interpol headquarters in Algeria were easy targets for suicide bombers who carried out their attacks killing dozens of innocents in Algeria.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was himself targeted by a terrorist plan during his visit to Batna province on September 9, 2007. They were unidentified and even some of them were newly recruited including the teenager pupil, the ill old man and the jobless one.

Marwane Boudina, Ben Chehab Mouloud, Charef Larbi, Nabil Belkacemi, Abdelkader Bechla, Mohamed Ouaza, Houari Belezreg and others may have kept their “jihad” nicknames more than their real names like Suhaib and Malih.

The killing of hundreds people by almost 11 suicide bombers constitutes a transformation which brought back panic and fears among safe citizens after a period of tranquillity.

 The April 11th, 2007 was marked by images of disaster caused by the Government Palace explosion. On that day, bodies were scattered and death bloody odour spread among smoke and ambulances sounds. It was a scenario of the world’ end but small that the September 11th.Minutes later, a blast took place in eastern Algiers where the headquarters of the Interpol’s representation was targeted by a suicide attack taking many lives.At that time, the 11 of each month was said the “International Day of Suicide Attacks.”     

Al-Qaeda has lost eminent leaders since the Algiers attacks on April 11 

Security experts believe that the attacks reflect the weakness of the so-called Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and their incapability of military confrontation in battlefield.

 “This kind of attacks causes a heavy death toll compared to small causalities for terrorists.”

Since the Algiers attacks on April 11, counterterrorism forces killed eminent leaders at Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb who had been involved in those attacks.

 The option to use bombs in public places was the same method exercised by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in the 1990’s.  

Since April 11th, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb carried out around 9 suicide attacks using car bombs and a failed bomb belt attempt which targeted President Bouteflika in Batna.

Chronology of suicide attacks in Algeria: 

·       April 11, 2007: 33 victims and over 200 wounded in two suicide attacks which targeted the Government Palace and a police station in Algiers.

·       July 11, 2007: a suicide attack targeted a military barracks in Lakhdaria (120 km east of Algiers) killing 10 and wounding 35.

·       September 6, 2007: 22 killed and 74 wounded in a suicide attack which targeted President Bouteflika in Batna.

·       September 8, 2007: 26 killed and 60 wounded in a car bomb which was blown up at a navy barracks in Boumerdes province (50 km east of Algiers).

·       October 2007: a failed attack on a bus carrying foreigners wounding two people in Bouira province (70 km east of Algiers).

·       November 11, 2007 : a car bomb targeted a police station in Tizi Ouzou province (100 km east of Algiers) wounding 15.

·       December 10, 2007: Russian employees escaped a terrorist attack.

·       December 11, 2007: 26 killed and 117 wounded in two suicide attacks at UN agency and the Constitutional Council in Algiers.

·       January 2, 2008: a suicide attack targeted a police station in Boumerdes killing 4 and wounding 24.

·       January 29, 2008: three killed and 25 wounded in a suicide attack at a police station in Boumerdes.