Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Two suicide bombings rocked the Algerian capital, killing as many as 62 people in the nation's worst attack since Islamist massacres in the 1990s.
An al-Qaeda group claimed responsibility for the bombings in a statement published on an Islamist Web site, according to SITE, a U.S.-based group monitoring extremist Internet messages.
The first blast in Algiers occurred at 9:40 a.m. local time and struck the Constitutional Council building, killing as many as 50 people, most of them students, and injuring dozens of others, hospital officials said. Less than 10 minutes later, a car bomb detonated near United Nations offices in the Hydra district, where many foreign embassies are located. That explosion left 12 dead, according to the officials. The UN said 10 of its workers may have died and others are missing.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, issued a communiqué to jihadist forums on the Internet claiming responsibility for the attacks, SITE, or Search for International Terrorist Entities, said by e-mail.
The al-Qaeda group published photographs of the two suicide bombers, identifying them as Ibrahim Abu Uthman and Abdul Rahman Abu Abdul Nasser Al-Aassemi, according to SITE. Their truck bombs contained more than 8000 kilograms of explosives, according to the statement.
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