A booby-trapped car exploded at a barracks housing coast guard officials on Saturday, killing at least 28 people in Algeria's second terror attack this week, hospital officials said. The explosion ripped through the northern coastal town of Dellys, about 30 miles from Algiers, as the local coast guard was taking part in the morning flag-raising ceremony. All the victims were coast guard officials, who are part of Algeria's armed forces, hospital officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. Dozens more were injured.Recent bombings in Algeria have generated fears of a return to the mass-scale violence of the 1990s, when Algeria's Islamic insurgency peaked. The country, a U.S. ally against terrorism, has been trying to move past the 15-year insurgency that killed 200,000 people. Until recently, its efforts appeared mostly successful. The attack came just two days after another bombing killed at least 22 in a crowd of people in eastern Algeria who were waiting to see visiting President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has devoted his eight years in office to ending the insurgency. There was widespread speculation that Bouteflika was the intended target of that attack, though Algerian officials kept silent on the question. Police said the bomber was killed by security services after he dropped the explosives and tried to escape.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility in either attack. However, an al-Qaida affiliate calling itself al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa has been active in Algeria lately. On Friday, Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni warned terrorists that they have "one choice: turn themselves in, or die."