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Rescuers search for survivors
12/12/2007 11:14 - (SA)
Algiers - Rescuers in Algiers searched on Wednesday for remaining survivors of a double car bomb strike claimed by al-Qaeda that killed dozens, including at least 11 United Nations staff.
Amid a disputed death toll, seven people were pulled alive from the debris of one of the bombings, which tore through the offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other UN agencies, Algerian radio reported.
The second attack killed and maimed students packed in a bus as it passed a car that was detonated outside the country's highest court in central Algiers.
The government said 26 people were killed and 177 wounded by the two bombs. Hospital sources gave a toll of 62 dead and about 100 injured.
One Algerian newspaper, Al-Watan, on Wednesday cited medical sources who put the number of dead at 72.
Al-Qaeda claims responsibility
The UN said at least 11 of its staff were killed and several more were still unaccounted for after the attacks as rescuers, aided by sniffer dogs, tried to locate injured survivors among the rubble of the partially collapsed office building.
Stunned families gathered nearby anxiously awaiting news of missing relatives. One woman shouted and slumped toward the ground after hearing her son was among the dead, and authorities quickly led her away.
Al-Qaeda's Branch in the Islamic Maghreb (BAQMI) claimed responsibility for the bombs in a statement published on an Islamist website, the authenticity of which could not be immediately confirmed.
"We are announcing the good news to the Muslim nation," read the statement, alongside purported photographs of the two suicide bombers, named as Abdel Rahmane al-Assmi and Ammi Ibrahim Abou Othmane, carrying assault rifles.
It hailed "the success of the two martyr operations carried out by... two heroes in Algiers to defend the nation of Islam and to humiliate the crusaders and their agents, the slaves of the United States and the sons of France".
'We have nothing to hide'
The statement, which threatened further attacks, said the double bombings "debunked the myth that the inner-core of our group has been destroyed".
It said: "This attack reminds the crusaders who are occupying our land and who pillage our wealth of the necessity of paying heed to the demands and addresses of our sheikh and emir Osama bin Laden, God protect him."
Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem insisted on national television on Tuesday that the official toll of 26 was "the real" toll.
He said: "We have nothing to hide. Every drop of Algerian blood counts for us."
It was the latest of a series of bombings in the capital and other major Algerian cities this year that had killed about 100 people. Al-Qaeda had claimed responsibility for all of them.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon led international condemnation of the attacks and ordered an "immediate review" of security measures for UN staff.
- AFP
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