Suicide attack at Algerian police academy kills 43
No group claimed responsibility for the car bomb, which also injured more than 38.
CAIRO — A suicide car bomb killed at least 43 people at a police barracks in Algeria today, according to the country's Interior Ministry, which in recent months has been battling a resurgent terrorist group with links to Al Qaeda.
The bomb reportedly exploded near the entrance of a paramilitary police training school in the Les Issers district about 40 miles east of the capital, Algiers. Police said more than 38 people were injured, mostly police recruits and civilians. The Interior Ministry said the casualties were "preliminary estimates."
No group claimed immediate responsibility. The attack followed a bombing earlier this month that killed eight people at a beach resort, and a double bombing in December that targeted a U.N. building and killed about 40 people in Algiers.
An Algerian journalist, who asked not to be named, said by telephone that state TV was restricting coverage of the carnage, and that roads to the site had been blocked.
"Algerian media is showing very little of this," said the journalist. "The government will try to shut coverage down on this. This is very sensitive for them."
The attack comes as a group calling itself Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has strengthened and become more active over the last year. The organization is the re-creation of the former Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or the French acronym GSPC. The group was formed by militants who fought in Algeria's civil war in the 1990s.
In recent years, government crackdowns and amnesty programs appeared to have weakened Islamic radicals. But beginning in 2007, a string of attacks across the country indicated that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was growing stealthier and bolder. In April of that year, two bombs exploded during a rally for Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, killing more than 20 people. The president was not harmed.
jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com
