A terrorist organization calling itself the North African wing of al-Qaeda has claimed responsbility for this week's bombings in Algeria which killed more than 50 people.
The message, from a group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, was broadcast on Friday by the Arabic language television station al-Jazeera. In it, group spokesman Salah Abu Mohammed said the attacks were in response to "the death of 12 young mujaheddin" who were killed during an operation by Algerian police against the group's headquarters in Tizi Ouzou.
Salah promised that any future operations against the group would be met with a "severe response." Prior to the group's claim of responsibility, Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said the attacks were a reaction to successful counter-terror operations. Yazid Zerhouni said on Tuesday that the militants were being driven "to the wall" by Algerian security forces.
This week in Algeria has been one of the bloodiest since a military takeover in 1992 brought to an end a period of democratic reform which was poised to bring the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front to power. On Wednesday, two car bombs killed 12 in the town of Bouira following a bombing on Tuesday at a gendarmerie training school which killed 48 people. The militant group which has claimed responsibility for the attacks adopted the Al-Qaeda name early in 2007 and has since claimed responsibility for a number of bombings including the twin suicide bombings of one of the UN offices and a court building in Algiers in December 2007 which killed 41 people.
