ALGERIA:The sinister choice of the 11th day of the month for twin bombings reinforces the allegiance sworn to bin Laden by Algerian Salafists GSPC, writes Lara Marlowe
Algerian authorities almost certainly underestimated the number of victims of the bombings in Algiers yesterday; they invariably do, as if lying about the number of dead somehow diminishes the catastrophe. But they were right when they attributed the carnage to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb.
The choice of the 11th day of the month, and near-simultaneous explosions, were tantamount to an al-Qaeda signature. One couldn't help recalling the terrible suicide bombing of the Canal Hotel, the UN headquarters in Baghdad, four years ago.
Only last week, French president Nicolas Sarkozy was in Algiers. In that sense, al-Qaeda struck close to Paris yesterday.
Algeria's proximity to France was one of the attractions of the former Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) when Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, announced on September 11th, 2006, that the Algerian group was joining al-Qaeda.
"This blessed union (between the GSPC and us) will be a bone in the throat of the American and French crusaders," al-Zawahiri warned.
"It will strike fear in the heart of the traitors and sons of infidels of France."
Abdelmalek Droukdal, a hirsute veteran of the war in Afghanistan, became the leader of the GSPC three years ago, and immediately swore allegiance to al-Qaeda. The group changed its name to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb last January.
Droukdal sees himself playing the role that Abu Moussab al-Zarqawi played in Iraq, dispatching Tunisian and Moroccan suicide bombers to undermine the "infidel" regimes of Algeria's neighbours.
As reported by the French magazine Le Point last spring, bin Laden has tried to establish a relationship with Algerian Islamists since the early 1990s.
One of his bodyguards in Sudan returned to Algeria and carried out the first assassination of French nationals there in 1993. But co-operation stopped when two bin Laden envoys were murdered by the late Armed Islamic Group (GIA) leader Djamel Zitouni in 1996.
Bin Laden said he couldn't work with "throat-slashers of Muslims".
The GSPC, founded in 1998, shared al-Qaeda's Salafist philosophy - the belief that Sunni Muslims should live as they did in the time of the prophet.
Both groups saw themselves at war with "crusaders", Jews and corrupt Arab regimes. And the GSPC offered al-Qaeda a foothold in north Africa.
Until recently, the GSPC trained fighters for the jihad in Iraq.
Al Qaeda in Iraq has been hit hard by recent increases in US troop levels, and it may be that yesterday's attacks in Algiers were motivated by the group's need to attract international attention.
About 100 Algerians are thought to be fighting in Iraq. Algerian authorities fear they will return to destabilise Algeria.
Sixteen years have passed since the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was set to win Algeria's first free elections. Algeria has gone into a political deep freeze.
Participation in last May's legislative elections was less than 20 per cent, because Algerians no longer want to participate in a charade of democratisation. Islah, the only legal Islamist party, had become the country's main opposition force, so it too was dismantled by the government.
Abassi Madani and Ali Benhadj, the FIS leaders who were imprisoned for many years, remain very popular.
Benhadj's 20-year-old son Abdelkader this year appeared in a video filmed by the GSPC, wearing combat fatigues and holding a Kalashnikov.
"My goal is to participate in establishing the law of Allah," he said.
Some 200,000 Algerians died in the 1990s. Security forces seemed to have quashed the Islamist rebellion. But 460 people were killed in attacks last year.
Yesterday's twin bombings fulfilled al-Qaeda in the Maghreb's strategy of attacking foreigners. Its other goal is to extend the battle beyond Algeria's border.