By DPA,
Algiers/Paris : At least 43 people were killed Tuesday in a suicide bomb attack at a police academy in eastern Algeria, officials in Algiers said.
Nearly 40 people were also wounded in the attack, which took place in the town of Issers, some 60 km east of the capital.
The attacker drove a bomb-laden car into the main entrance of the school where police academy candidates had gathered.
The attack was the worst since a double car bombing in mid-December in which 41 people were killed, including 17 UN workers.
In Paris, the French foreign ministry condemned the attack, expressing solidarity with the Algerian government in its fight against terrorism.
Tuesday’s attack follows the death of 12 people – 11 soldiers and one civilian – on Sunday when suspected Islamist terrorists attacked a military convoy near the coastal town of Skikda, 350 km east of Algiers.
Ten military personnel were injured in the earlier blast, and four of the attackers were killed in the firefight following the bombing.
No organisation has yet taken responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, although Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for December bombs.
Algeria has seen a resurgence of violence in recent weeks, with suicide bombings taking place in the east of the country Aug 3 and Aug 10, in which six people died and dozens were wounded.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is widely believed to be made up of militants who fought in Algeria’s decade-long civil war which began in 1992.