Explosion thunders outside Algerian police housing

An explosion shattered an Algerian police housing, wounding eight people.

Photo: Explosion thunders outside Algerian police housing

The attack came as tensions ran high following two deadly terrorist attacks last week by al-Qaida's North Africa affiliate targeting Algerian officialdom.

The latest explosion hit in the town of Zemmouri, 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Algiers, at about 17:30 (1630 GMT), residents said. The wounded were sent to the nearby hospital in Borj Menaiel.

Eight people were wounded, and two of them were in serious condition, said a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The bomb was hidden in a bag and placed at the entrance to the police housing compound, adjacent to an open-air market, the official said.

On Saturday, a car bombing killed 28 coast guard officers in the town of Dellys south of Algiers. Two days earlier, at least 22 people were killed when a bomb ripped through a crowd waiting for the president in eastern Algeria.

Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, the new name for a group long known as the GSPC, has claimed responsibility for both attacks.

The group has carried out a spate of recent bombings that have shattered the Algerian government's efforts to restore calm after 15 years of Islamist insurgency.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's government - a U.S. ally in fighting terrorism - has responded by intensifying military crackdowns on Islamic militants hiding out in remote scrubland.

Algeria's insurgency broke out in 1992 after the army canceled elections that a now-banned Islamic party was poised to win. Up to 200,000 people were killed in the ensuing violence.