Algerian train station bombings kill 12

09/06/2008

Multiple casualties have been reported following back-to-back bombings at a train station east of Algiers on Sunday. Algerians condemned the attacks and called on the security authorities to deal firmly with the terrorists.

Said Jameh in Algiers contributed to this report - 09/06/08

[Getty Images] An Algerian policeman guards a checkpoint near the site of the June 8th blast at the Beni Amrane railway station. The attack killed 12 people, including fire-fighters and soldiers.

Two bombs exploded on Sunday (June 8th) at the Beni Amrane railway station in Boumerdès wilaya, killing 12 people, including fire-fighters, soldiers, a French engineer and his Algerian driver.

The first blast occurred at around 5:10 pm, when a bomb placed on the right side of the RN5 motorway to Algiers was remotely detonated. The government has officially confirmed an as-yet unnamed employee of French water engineering company Razel and his driver Sayed Samir, an native of Lakhdaria, died in their Renault Megane.

A second bomb exploded 15 minutes later outside the railway station near the martyrs' cemetery. Sources say nearly a dozen policemen and firefighters were killed in the blast as they were responding to the first explosion. Officials tell Magharebia that the final death toll will be amended upon notification to next-of-kin.

Security personnel who surrounded the bomb sites found and successfully disarmed another device, El Watan reported. Traffic was backed up for hours as a result of a security cordon.

There has been no claim of responsibility for Sunday's back-to-back bombings. This is the second time, however, that the French engineering firm Razel had been targeted by a terrorist attack. Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the first blast last September. Three Razel employees, a driver and five police escorts were injured when a bomb was detonated next to their vehicle in the Koudiet Asaserdoune area of Lakhdaria.

After learning of the bombings on Sunday night, French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered President Abdelaziz Bouteflika his "unwavering support in the determined struggle against terrorism".

"My thoughts...go to the people and the authorities of Algeria, who fight the scourge of terrorism with courage and determination. Their fight is also our own," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a separate statement.

The train station attack is the third in five days and the second to implement near-simultaneous bombings.

Two people died last Wednesday when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a military barracks in Bordj El Kiffan (25 km east of Algiers), moments after a remotely-detonated explosion at a café several metres away created a distraction. The next day, a roadside bomb killed six soldiers in Cap Djinet, near Dellys in the Boumerdès wilaya.

Following the most recent attacks, local press confirmed that security has been reinforced in the region, particularly in the forest area of Takhoukht.

According to security expert Mouloud Morchedi, this attack comes as "part of al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb's plan to return to confrontations after they were forced into a corner by the security forces through the combing operations that have been going on for a whole year now against their strongholds in Kabylia region, Batna, and Tabsa", he told Magharebia.

Security officers have also curbed the movement of terrorists and killed scores of them, including emirs, in recent months, Morchedi added.

He noted that the escalation of attacks coincides with the summer season, when more than two million expatriate Algerians return to their native country to visit their families.

The bombings also occurred on the eve of the Algeria International Exhibition, in which many European countries and the US are slated to participate. To little avail, al-Qaeda has posted internet comments designed to frighten foreign companies into withdrawing from the Algerian market, he added.

Algerians condemned the attacks and called on the security authorities to deal firmly with the terrorists.

"When I hear such news, I feel that our future is vague," said Reda, who works in an internet café. "We sometimes lose hope because we thought the crisis was over three or four years ago."

Chakib Lounis agreed with Reda on how to punish those responsible for the recent bombings.

"Algeria should carry out the death penalty against all who are involved in these criminal acts," he said.

Addendum: The Algerian government denied local and international press reports on June 9th that 12 people were killed in two bomb blasts in Beni Amrane. The National Defence Ministry said that the only fatalities in Beni Amrani were French engineer Pierre Nowacki and his Algerian driver Syed Samir after they hit a remote-controlled roadside bomb, while a security agent and a fire-fighter were slightly injured by the second blast.