AP News, May 20th, 2007
Algerian security forces dismantled a suspected support network linked to twin terror bombings last month in the capital that killed 30 people, the official news agency reported Saturday.
Authorities arrested one member of the alleged logistical cell within two weeks of the April 11 bombings in Algiers. By following the suspect's testimony, they rounded up 11 others, the APS news agency reported, citing unidentified security officials. It did not indicate when the 11 others were detained.
A group calling itself Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, built on the remnants of an insurgent Salafist group, claimed responsibility for the attacks on the prime minister's office and a police station.
A regional Salafist militant leader, identified as Harek Zoheir, alias Sofiane Fassila, was considered by authorities as the suspected ringleader of the cell, APS reported.
Security forces seized more than nine tons of nitric acid and a large amount of an ammonia chemical, stored in two garages in the town of Tidjelabine, 30 miles east of the capital, and used for making bombs, the report said. Another stash of explosives and electronic triggers were found near Draa Benkhedda, further east.
The 12-person group was also said to have links to bombings in eastern suburbs of Algiers last October, APS said.
Algeria has been working to quell sporadic violence linked to an insurgency that broke out in 1992 after the army canceled legislative elections that an Islamic party was set to win. As many as 200,000 have died in the resulting violence, which peaked in the mid-1990s.
