Algeria

Two bombs exploded at a railway station east of Algiers, killing 12 people, including a French engineer, said diplomats and security sources. It was the first time since the 1990s that a French citizen was killed in political violence in Algeria. The bombs went off at close intervals in the town of Beni Amrane, about 30 miles from the capital. Eight of the dead were soldiers and two were firemen, said a security source, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The U.S. Embassy in Algiers on Friday ordered its employees to tightly restrict their movements and urged other Americans in the North African country to do the same, citing indications of possible terrorist attacks. Security concerns have been high in the Algerian capital since Dec. 11, when suicide bombings targeted United Nations offices and a government building, killing at least 37 people, including 17 U.N. employees.

The twin suicide bombings in Algeria's capital that took at least 37 lives last week have given the enigmatic militant group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb a sharp burst of publicity. But experts say the reality is more complex than the propaganda or media reports depicting an overwhelming and ubiquitous menace. In fact, the Algerian military has recently inflicted damage on the group, chopping away at its rural strongholds and capturing or slaying leaders, experts say.

The U.N. raised the death toll of staffers killed in the car bombing of its Algiers headquarters to 17 on Friday, after rescue workers found more bodies under rubble. The discovery brings the total killed in Tuesday's terrorist attacks to 37, according to Algeria's Interior Ministry. A group called Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which has ties to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, claimed responsibility for the dual suicide bombings at a court building and the U.N. compound. U.N.

Algerian officials said Wednesday that the number of dead from a double bomb attack in Algiers had risen to 31, but that figure was disputed by a leading newspaper, which cited hospital sources as estimating that 72 people were killed. Rescue workers in the Algerian capital continued to search for survivors in heavily damaged offices of the United Nations, where 11 agency workers died in one of Tuesday's blasts.

Two bombs that killed at least 26 people, including 11 United Nations workers, in the Algerian capital on Tuesday were orchestrated by a resurgent Al Qaeda-linked group seeking to overthrow North African governments, Algerian authorities said. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, one of the region's most proficient militant organizations, claimed responsibility for the nearly simultaneous attacks in Algiers -- one in front of the Constitutional Council and the second at a U.N. compound.

The deputy chief of Al Qaeda's North Africa wing, believed to be the group's operational leader, was killed along with two other rebels in a gun battle with Algerian troops, local newspapers said. Hareg Zoheir, also known as Sofiane abu Fasila, was said to be the second in command of the group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and suspected of being behind the planning of most of the suicide bombings in Algeria in recent months.

Al Qaeda's North Africa affiliate claimed responsibility for two suicide attacks that killed at least 57 people in Algeria in the last two days, Al Jazeera television said Saturday. Al Qaeda in the Maghreb, an Islamist group that has pledged loyalty to Osama bin Laden, said in an Internet statement that it was behind Saturday's suicide truck bombing at a coast guard barracks east of Algiers and an attack Thursday in the town of Batna, Al Jazeera reported.

A suicide bomber killed 15 people in the Algerian town of Batna, shortly before a scheduled visit by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, state television reported. Bouteflika, who later visited some of the 74 wounded in a hospital, blamed Islamist rebels. Residents said that the bomb was detonated among a crowd waiting to see the president arrive. "Terrorist acts have absolutely nothing in common with the noble values of Islam," Bouteflika was quoted as saying.

A suicide bomber Wednesday blew up a refrigerated truck loaded with explosives at a military encampment outside the capital, killing 10 soldiers and wounding 35, a security official said. Al Qaeda in the Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attack, which came as the Africa Games opened, Al Jazeera TV network reported.