The North African wing of the al-Qaeda terror network has claimed responsibility for the recent car bombings in Algeria which killed 12 people and wounded at least 31 people.
The claim was made on Thursday through an audio recording by a member of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb called Salah Abu Mohammad.The group, known until last year as Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, claimed responsibility for the two car bomb blasts on Wednesday in the town of Bouira, southeast of the capital Algiers.
The group has also claimed several earlier attacks including the twin suicide bombings of United Nations offices and a court building in the Algerian capital last December.The Bouira bombings followed a spate of attacks including a bombing at the entrance of a police school on Tuesday that killed and wounded dozens of people, and ambushes on Sunday that killed 11.The urban bombings reflect new tactics first adopted in 2007 by fighters in the North African country, a key oil and gas supplier to Europe.
Violence began in Algeria in 1992 when a military-backed government scrapped elections that a radical Islamic party was poised to win. About 150,000 people have died in the ensuing violence.
