53 killed and injured in mosque bomb blast in Algiers

An Algerian paper said yesterday that a bomb blast at a mosque in Algiers during Friday prayers killed 8 worshipers and wounded 45 others, many of them critically.

A second bomb exploded in a cemetery in a neighboring town killing an 11-year-old boy, and a third bomb in another Algiers mosque was spotted and hurled outside the building before exploding, slightly inuring one man.

Sources reported two gunmen shot dead a moderate Islamist candidate in this month's local elections in an eastern town, and government troops killed 15 terrorists in Algiers and the western town of Oran.

A bomb ripped through a mosque in Bouzareah district on the heights of Algiers at noon on Friday killing 5 people and wounding 45 more among worshipers gathered for Friday prayer, "Liberate" newspaper said. 27 of the injured were in serious condition, it said.