afrol News, 12 April - Algerian authorities have confirmed that the dead toll of the Wednesday’s bomb blasts has risen to 33. With al-Qaeda’s purported claims of being responsible for the catastrophe, most Algerians have since been running cold with fears, especially at a time the terrorist network is said to be quickly spreading its tentacles in the North Africa region.

The Algerian Prime Minister, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, said if the suicide bombers’ target was to disrupt the 17 May elections, then there purpose has been defeated. “The elections will go ahead as planned,” he said, believing that violence-hungry people don’t subscribe to transformation of the power through political process.

Shockingly, the blasts followed similar attacks in Morocco, with al-Qaeda branch in North Africa admitting responsibility. It went further to publish the pictures of the three suicide bombers on the internet. In a statement published by an Islamist website, al-Qaeda claims to have killed 53 people in the blasts but this figure contradicts that supplied by the Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Zerhouni who visited the victims in hospital.

Mr Zerhouni said over 200 people were injured by the explosions. He added that 57 people, some in serious conditions, have been admitted at the hospital.

Terrorism experts fear the escalation of similar bombings in Africa, in particular, Tunisia and Libya.

Osama bin Ladin’s network’s branch in the Maghreb region issued a statement insisting that it is set to liberate the entire land of Islam. This included southern Spain’s Andulusia and Jerusalem thus prompting Spain’s anti-terrorist judge, Baltasar Garzon, to asked Spanish authorities to remain extra vigilant of suicide attacks.

The blasts attracted world-wide condemnation, with most people linking them to Islamic, a claim King Abdullah II ruled out, maintaining the “cowardly acts are neither connected to Islam nor its ethics.”

Algerians said the blasts remind them of their terrorism years in the 1990s when terrorists almost controlled the country.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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