Algeria

21 August
Algeria’s reconciliation policy is threatened by a spate of bombings
(The Economist) Some 60 people have been killed in a series of car bomb explosions over two days in a region to the south-east of Algiers, marking a major escalation in the activity of Islamist underground groups that have acquired new purpose since affiliating with al-Qaida in 2006. The upsurge in violence appears to reflect the concern of al-Qaida’s leadership to open up new fronts in the Middle East and North Africa after the serious setbacks that the movement has suffered in Iraq. Some Algerian commentators have also blamed the escalation on the government’s reconciliation policy, thereby raising questions over whether the president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, should be allowed to stay on for a third term.
20 August 2008
Two more bombs kill 11 in Algeria: report
BOUIRA, Algeria (Reuters) – Two car bombs in Algeria killed at least 11 people on Wednesday, the day after an attack that left 43 dead at a military academy, Algerian press agency APS said quoting the Interior Ministry.
The bloodiest week in nearly a year in the OPEC member state recalled the horrors of the 1990s, the height of an Islamist rebel insurgency in the north African country of 34 million.
SNC-Lavalin Says 12 Workers Killed in Algeria Bombing
Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) — SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., Canada’s biggest engineering and construction company, said 12 workers were killed in a car bombing in Algeria and 15 were injured.
A bus carrying the company’s Algerian employees to the Koudiat Acerdoune water-treatment plant was attacked earlier today, Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin said today in a statement.

December 2007
Profile: Al-Qaeda in North Africa
(BBC) Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb, to give its full name in English, has its roots in the bitter Algerian civil war of the early 1990s, but has since evolved to take on a more modern Islamist agenda.
15 May 2007
Q&A: Algerian election
Algerians go to the polls on 17 May to elect deputies to the National People’s Assembly (APN), the lower house of the country’s parliament.
What is at stake?
The legitimacy of Algerian elections has been an issue ever since 1991, when the result of a parliamentary election that handed victory to the now banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was cancelled. The following year, the military stepped in and a state of emergency was imposed that has not yet been lifted. The ensuing “dirty war” between Islamist militants and government forces claimed 150,000 lives and lasted for the best part of a decade.
April 11, 2007
(BBC) Explosions rock Algerian capital
Two blasts in Algeria’s capital Algiers have killed at least 23 people and injured 160 – one exploding near the prime minister’s office.
A caller claiming to represent al-Qaeda in the Maghreb told an Arabic TV channel that his group had carried out the attacks.