A suicide car bomb attack killed three people and wounded six east of Algiers last night, Algeria's official APS news agency reported today.
The attack at Takdemt district near the coastal town of Dellys, 100km (62 miles) east of the capital, was the first suicide bombing in the country since a spate of violence in August in which at least 125 people were killed.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but a string of similar bombings in August was claimed by a group calling itself al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Since adopting the al-Qaeda name early last year, the group, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, has claimed several attacks including twin suicide bombings of UN offices and a court building in Algiers in December 2007 that killed 41 people.
It also claimed a suicide truck bombing against a coast guard barracks in Dellys in September 2007 that killed 37 people.
Violence began in Algeria in 1992 when a military-backed government scrapped elections a radical Islamic party was poised to win. About 150,000 people have been killed in the ensuing violence.
Reuters