The death toll from al-Qaeda-claimed suicide bombings in Algeria increased Thursday to 33, the government said. Meanwhile, police deployed in the capital, establishing highway checkpoints to reinforce security.
The group that claimed responsibility for Wednesday‘s attacks, al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa, has carried out a series of recent bombings.
Wednesday‘s attacks were the deadliest to hit the Algiers region since 2002, when a bomb in a market in a suburb killed 38 people and injured 80.
Meanwhile, alagerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, after Wednesday’s attacks, held a meeting with several senior officials, during which several decisions have been taken, Head of Government Abdelaziz Belkhadem told the national television channel. This emergency meeting "has been sanctioned by a series of measures to first end such criminal acts, and secondly to neutralize their (criminals) nuisance capacity," he pointed out. "Such criminal acts are meant to plunge Algeria back into the crisis years," the Head of Government reflected, reassuring, in this respect, that the Algerian people "remain attached to peace, security and serenity." These individuals, he added, "don’t want Algerians to live in peace."
