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Car bomb explodes near Algerian police station, killing 4 officers, wounding 20

A car bomb exploded near a police station in a town east of the Algerian capital, killing at least four officers and injuring 20 people, officials and witnesses said.

The blast on Wednesday followed twin suicide bombings on Dec. 11 at UN offices and a government building that killed at least 37 people in the capital of Algiers.

A journalist and another resident in the city of Naciria said the car sped toward the police station and exploded. The two, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety, said the attack appeared to be a suicide bombing.

The Interior Ministry said the attack killed at least four police officers and injured 20, including eight police officers. The ministry provided no details other than to say that the bombing was near the police station in the town about 70km east of Algiers.

The explosion tore off the front of the police station and damaged neighboring buildings. Security forces cordoned off the rubble-strewn ruins.

Security forces have been on maximum alert since earlier this week, after three trucks were stolen in the Algiers region, the newspaper Liberte reported on Wednesday. The vehicles included a fuel tanker, and officials fear they might be used in suicide attacks, the report said.

Al-Arabiya satellite TV had reported that al-Qaeda's North Africa branch claimed responsibility for the attack, but the claim couldn't immediately be confirmed with officials. The group, known as al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa, emerged from an alliance between Osama bin Laden's international terrorist network and an Algerian Islamist movement known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat.

The suicide bombings in December and others in April also were claimed by al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa.
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