The death toll from a bomb blast at a crowded market outside Algiers yesterday has climbed to 38, local authorities said today.
The death toll from a bomb blast at a crowded market outside Algiers yesterday has climbed to 38, local authorities said today.
The blast, on the country's 40th independence anniversary, rocked the market at Larba, 25 km (15 miles) south of Algiers, early in the day when it was packed with shoppers.
Two bomb explosions followed the market attack, but no one was killed. One went off at a beach near Sidi Ferruch where senior government officials live, wounding two people.
Another exploded at a cemetery outside Jijel, 220 km (137 miles) east of Algiers, wounding two.
Algeria has been wracked by violence since 1992 when the then army-backed authorities scrapped a parliamentary election that radical Islamists were poised to win.
The government says more than 100,000 have been killed. Independent sources put the toll at up to 150,000.