Almotamar.net - April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Algeria's army killed the suspected deputy leader of an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group blamed for bomb attacks in the capital, Algiers, two weeks ago that killed more than 30 people.
Samir Saioud, also known as Samir Moussaab, died yesterday in a clash with soldiers in the Si Mustapha region, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of Algiers, the state-run Algerie Presse Service said on its Web site.
He was identified as the coordinator for the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat by former members of the organization ``who enjoyed the measures under the charter for national reconciliation,'' the news service said. It didn't give any other details of the incident.
The April 11 bombings in Algiers and a police raid a day earlier in Morocco that killed four suspected suicide bombers show there is a new threat from al-Qaeda in North Africa, the U.S. State Department said earlier this month. The GSPC said it changed its name in January to al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb with the approval of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to reflect an alliance that began in September.
In the attacks two weeks ago, a car bomb exploded next to the prime minister's office in the center of Algiers and another outside a police station between the city and the airport. They were the first major attacks in Algeria's capital since the civil war in the 1990s.
Al-Qaeda took responsibility for the bombings in a statement after the incident posted on a Web site that carried photos and testimonials from three suicide bombers. The four people who died in Casablanca, Morocco's largest city, were also affiliated with al-Qaeda, according to the statement.
Civil War
The GSPC was founded in the mid-1990s as an alternative to the Armed Islamic Groups, or GIA, Algeria's main Islamic guerrilla group. The civil war began after the military-backed government banned 1992 elections that the now banned Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win.
Both groups want to impose an Islamic state in Algeria. Unlike the GIA, the GSPC didn't accept a 1999 amnesty that largely brought the civil war to an end.
In 2003, the GSPC pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda. Ayman al- Zawahiri, the top aide to Osama bin Laden, reciprocated last September, announcing a ``blessed union'' and saying the GSPC would be al-Qaeda's weapon to attack France and Algeria's military-dominated government, which cooperates closely with France and the U.S.
The GSPC last year stepped up its activities. Until the April 11 bombings, its actions were limited to attacks on police stations or oil installations outside the capital.