Suicide bombing in Algeria

Last night a suicide bomber killed 8 people and wounded 19 others according to Algerian public radio.

A van full of explosives was driven near a police building building and detonated. The bombing happened at a beach called Zemmouri el-Bahri. A police officer reportedly fired at the vehicle causing it to explode prior to impact with the building.

According to Yazid Zerhouni, the Minister of the Interior of Algeria stated that attacks happened around 10:00pm (GMT).

Press TV stated that Al-Qaeda’s wing in North Africa claimed responsibility. The same wing of Al-Qaeda also claimed responsibility for another suicide car bombing that occurred on August 3, killing or injuring 20 people.

On this day July 27, 1997

The Si Zerrouk massacre took place in the Si Zerrouk neighborhood in the south of El Arba (الأربعاء ) in Algeria on 27 July 1997. About 50 people were killed.

In 1997, Algeria was at the peak of a brutal civil conflict that had begun after the military’s cancellation of 1992 elections set to be won by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). Two major Islamist guerrilla groups, Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and AIS, and several minor ones, were fighting the government. Larbaa was a major center for the FIS’s armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS), which the GIA had recently declared war on; Mustapha Kartali, a former GIA chief who had split from him in 1995 and become head of the AIS’s Katibat Errahamane brigade, was based in the area.