Al Qaida wing behind deadly Algeria suicide bomb

Dubai: Al Qaida's North Africa wing said it was behind a deadly suicide bombing in Algeria on Sunday, according to a statement posted on the internet on Wednesday.

A car bomb exploded near a police station in the town of Tizi Ouzou, east of Algiers, on Sunday, wounding 25 people including four policemen.

The group, Al Qaida organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, identified the bomber as Makhlouf Abou-Mariam and said his truck was laden with 600kg of an unspecified explosive material.

The explosion destroyed a dozen cars, ripped the facade off a small block of apartments, gouged chunks of masonry from the walls of other nearby buildings and shattered windows in the town centre.

"We tell the sons of France and the slaves of America, and (we tell) their masters too, that our finger is on the trigger and the convoys of martyrs are longing to rampage your bastions in defence of our Islamic nation," the group said in the statement posted on an Islamist website.

The group has claimed several attacks in past including the twin suicide bombings of UN offices and a court building in Algiers in December 2007, which killed 41 people, 17 of them United Nations staff.