Algeria al-Qaeda suicide bombing kills three

A suicide car bombing killed three people and wounded six east of Algiers on Sunday evening, official media reported on Monday, the first such attack in the OPEC member country in more than a month.

The attack at Takdemt district near the coastal town of Dellys, 100 km (62 miles) east of the capital, was the first suicide bombing since a spate of violence in August in which at least 125 people were killed.

Al-Qaeda's north African offshoot, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), claimed the attacks, saying they were in retaliation for the army's killing of 12 of its members in early October.

This was the only attack during the Muslim holy month started Sept. 1, making it the least bloody Ramadan since Islamist violence emerged in 1992.

A series of suicide attacks and ambushes in eastern Algeria preceded the fasting month, with the deadliest killing 48 people at a police academy near Algiers on August 19 and triggering fears that Islamist extremists would launch assaults on Algerian cities during Ramadan in a repeat of the violence that left about 60 people dead last year.

Some local residents said the bomber targeted a checkpoint manned jointly by troops and paramilitary police guarding a nearby military barracks. There was no immediate confirmation of the reports.

Since adopting the al-Qaeda name early last year, the group, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has claimed several attacks including twin suicide bombings of U.N. offices and a court building in Algiers in December 2007 which killed 41 people.

It also claimed a suicide truck bombing against a coastguard barracks in Dellys in September 2007 that killed 37 people.

The insurrection began in 1992 when Algeria’s military-backed government canceled elections that the radical Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win. About 150,000 people have been killed in the ensuing violence.

Al-Qaeda's north Africa wing has posted two statements on the Internet during September saying it will not stop its attacks until Algeria is free from French and U.S. influence and what it called the "apostate" Algerian government is removed.