http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/current/international/stories/algeria.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
PARIS (Reuter) - A car bomb, believed to have been planted by Muslim militants, ripped through a crowded working class district of Algiers Thursday, killing seven people and wounding 100, security sources said.
Algerian President Liamine Zeroual, who rushed to the scene, blamed ``terrorists,'' the official name for Muslim guerrillas, the official Algerian news agency APS said.
The Health Ministry, quoted by APS, said seven people were killed and 100 wounded, including six seriously. Most had returned home after being treated in hospital, it said.
Earlier, APS quoted a security sources as saying 10 people were killed and 15 were wounded. The radio gave the same number of dead but said 16 were wounded.
The attack was the latest in a growing number of car bombs blamed by the authorities on Islamic fundamentalists, who oppose presidential elections due to be held on November 16.
Algerian radio, quoting security sources, said the bomb went off at 6:50 a.m. EDT in Mohamed Ounouri Square in the capital's Bab El-Oued district -- a densely populated area near the city center and a Muslim fundamentalist stronghold.
The square houses the headquarters of the Algerian security services, DGSN (Direction Generale de la Surete Nationale). Security near the building has been stepped up in recent months.
Local journalists said the bomb went off by a coffeeshop and the entrance to the Lycee Emir Abdelkader school. Most of the casualties were coffeeshop clients and passersby, they said.
Bab El-Oued was the focus of a bitter struggle between security forces and militants of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) during 1992 after the authorities that January cancelled a general election which the now-banned FIS was poised to win.
More than 40,000 people are estimated to have been killed in violence since the poll was scrapped, and November's planned presidential election is viewed by the authorities as a way of bringing the country out of crisis. Their Islamic opponents oppose the poll.