25/09/2007
The Paris prosecutor's office opened its own probe into last week's attack in the Algerian province of Lakhdaria that wounded two French citizens, an unnamed judicial source told AP on Monday (September 24th). The investigation was reportedly entrusted to the counterintelligence service known as the DST but no other information was available. The attack, which was perpetrated by al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, wounded nine people – two Frenchmen, an Italian, an Algerian driver and five Algerian policemen that were patrolling the foreigners' vehicle. The assault followed a video message by the North African branch of al-Qaeda' second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who urged armed groups to expel the French and Spanish "invaders" from the Maghreb region.