Car bomb brings death back to Algiers city

A car bomb killed eight people and wounded 25 when it exploded outside a restaurant in El Biar, on the heights of Algiers, an Algerian newspaper said on July 30. The blast ended a two-week lull in reported serious attacks and bloodshed in the city of an estimated four million people.

The last big bomb in Algiers hit a market on July 14, killing at least 21 people and wounding about 40. Since then the violence has been focused outside the capital.

In the past week, 170 people were slaughtered in villages and isolated communities in rebel attacks that Algerian papers said were revenge for 300 rebel deaths in a military offensive against a mountain hideout earlier in July.

The July 30 nighttime blast ripped along pavement thronged with people escaping their often overcrowded apartments in the popular working class district or simply out for the evening. Boys selling cigarettes, women heading home, customers in the restaurant and occupants of passing cars were hit by the explosion, which coincided with an attack on a police patrol in another area, Le Matin newspaper said.

Algerian security forces who blamed rebels for the blast gave an initial toll of three dead and 25 wounded, just after the bomb exploded at 7:40 p.m. on July 30.

Many of the wounded were in a serious condition.

"At the hospital emergency department were a dozen wounded who miraculously escaped death. Some were in a serious state and going to have surgery, including amputation of arms and / or legs," said Liberte newspaper.