Algerian minister blasts US embassy warning of possible attack

Algiers: Algeria's interior minister yesterday criticised a US embassy warning of possible imminent attacks in the capital Algiers saying it caused panic in a city already on edge after three suicide bombings.

"They take us for idiots," Interior Minister Nour Al Deen Yazid Zerhouni told reporters when asked about the warning that attackers might be planning to strike in Algiers on Saturday.

"Who has an interest in causing panic? It is clear that there is a scheming. You do not need an official statement to understand that."

Suicide bomb attacks killed 33 people and wounded 222 in the capital on Wednesday, the first large bomb attacks in the centre of the Mediterranean port city in more than a decade and believed to be the country's first suicide bomb attacks.

The explosions raised fears that the north African country might return to the intense political violence that gripped the country in the 1990s.

A warden notice issued to US expatriates in the early hours of Saturday, citing "unconfirmed information", said there might be attacks planned for that day in areas that might include the Algiers Central Post Office and Algerian State Television Headquarters (ENTV).

Interference

The day passed off peacefully, but the city of 3 million was gripped by rumours of dozens of bomb sightings.

Algerian newspapers have strongly criticised the warden message, saying it had caused unnecessary panic. A columnist in Al Watan said the message amounted to interference in Algerian internal affairs and ambassador Robert Ford should be expelled.

Newspapers have said the suicide bomber who attacked the government headquarters was identified as Marwan Boudina, a petty criminal in his 20s with a history of drug dealing.

Zerhouni told reporters yesterday authorities had now identified the two perpetrators of the attacks near the airport. He gave no details.

Algeria descended into bloodshed in 1992 after the then military-backed authorities scrapped a parliamentary election which an Islamist political party was set to win.

Up to 200,000 people were killed in the ensuing years of bloodshed.

That violence subsided in recent years following amnesties for insurgents, but rumbles on in mountains east of Algiers.

The Al Qaida Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for Wednesday's bombings, believed to have been the country's first suicide car bomb attacks.