Pakistan bombing toll rises to 30: police

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — The death toll from a suicide blast in northwest Pakistan has risen to 30 following the deaths of seven more people in hospital overnight, police said Wednesday.

The suicide attack happened at a hospital in the troubled town of Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday as Shiite Muslims gathered to protest over the death of a man in a suspected sectarian attack.

"The death toll has risen to 30 after seven more blast victims died in hospitals," local police official Malik Mushtaq told AFP by telephone.

The dead included three policemen, he said, adding that 39 people were wounded in the blast.

Police said they had found the legs of the bomber at the blast site. They suspect the bomber could be a militant from the tribal area near the Afghan border.

"Our initial clues reveal that he (the bomber) was from South Waziristan tribal region," a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

South Waziristan is viewed by Washington as a haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists.

The suicide attack was the first since US-backed president Pervez Musharraf resigned on Monday.

Islamabad has been under intense pressure from the United States to clamp down on militants based near the border.

11 Dead As Car Bombs Hit Algerian Military Base, Hotel

Two car bombings in eastern Algeria killed at least 11 people Wednesday -- a day after a blast near a military school in a neighboring region claimed 43 lives.

The explosions on Wednesday targeted a military barrack and a hotel in the city of Bouira.

The interior ministry labeled the blasts a "terrorist attack," and said they wounded another 31 people.

Bouira, located 58 miles (93 km) southeast of Algiers, is a market center for olives and cereal cultivated in areas surrounding it.

A blast near a military school in Algeria on Tuesday killed 43 people and wounded another 38, the interior ministry said.

Algerian officials labeled called that explosion "a terrorist attack" as well.

It took place at a school in Boumerdes, about 40 miles (60 km) east of the capital city of Algiers.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for either attacks.

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Egypt's Parliament on fire

Suicide Attack At Algerian Police Academy Kills 43

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-rigged car into a police academy as recruits lined up to register for classes, killing at least 43 people. It was the deadliest attack in recent years in the North African country.

The Interior Ministry said 42 civilians and a police officer were killed in the attack early Tuesday in the town of Les Issers, some 35 miles east of the capital, Algiers, the state-run APS news agency said.

The blast ripped off parts of the policy academy's roof, and damaged its facade. Photos transmitted by APS showed bodies wrapped in yellow plastic bags or blankets lying amid the rubble. Nearby houses and passing cars were also damaged.

Witnesses said all roads within two miles of Les Issers were blocked and cell phone networks were scrambled as police closed off the area.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but the country's al-Qaida affiliate has said it was behind a series of bombings in the past two years.

A security official at the school told The Associated Press that the attack occurred as young recruits waited to sign up for classes.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media, said the local academy was vulnerable because of the crowd of applicants at its gate.

Most of the civilians killed were police recruits, but witnesses said the blast also killed several people in nearby cars.

A resident of Les Issers said the explosion woke him and blasted a three-foot deep crater into the road in front of the police academy. "It made a huge noise, my windows shook," said Mohammed, a shopkeeper who refused to give his last name.

Tuesday's attack was one of the largest — if not the largest — in years.

In December, a double suicide bombing in Algiers killed 41 people, including 17 U.N. workers. In April 2007, coordinated suicide strikes against the main government offices in central Algiers and a police station killed 33.

Those attacks, like most of those recently, were claimed by Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, formerly known as the GSPC. The group grew out of an insurgency in the 1990s, which began when the army called off the second round of legislative elections that an Islamist party was slated to win. Years of ensuing violence left as many as 200,000 dead.

Violence diminished in Algeria in the early part of this decade, but attacks increased again after the GSPC affirmed allegiance to al-Qaida in 2006.

Most attacks have targeted the Algerian national security services and military, while a few have struck foreigners.

Tuesday's bombing came two days after a militant ambush in Skirda, about 300 miles east of Algiers, apparently targeted the military commander of the region and his police escort. Twelve people died in the Sunday attack, according to the Al Watan newspaper and several other dailies. Authorities have not commented on the case.

The reports said suspected Islamic militants detonated road mines, then opened fire on the convoy. They beheaded the victims and stole their uniforms along with a dozen automatic rifles.

In a similar attack three days earlier, militants killed the military chief for the Jijel area, also east of Algiers, local media reported.

The European Union said it "very firmly condemns the terrorist acts that have just claimed so many lives." The Algerian people are "once again victims of blind and barbaric terrorist violence," said a statement issued by France, the current president of the 27-nation bloc.

Associated Press writer Aomar Ouali contributed to this report.

Taliban ambush leaves 10 French soldiers dead

PARIS; KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- France's new commitment to put more of its troops on the line in Afghanistan was severely tested yesterday after a Taliban ambush near Kabul left 10 of its soldiers dead and 21 wounded in the worst single-day death toll for the French military in 25 years.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose Afghan policy defies decades of French hostility toward NATO combat missions, said the heavy losses would not weaken his resolve to "pursue the battle against terrorism."

Word of the tragedy prompted him to cut short a holiday and leave immediately for Kabul where he said he wanted to personally assure his troops on the ground that the country stands with them. He was also scheduled to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The French casualties, which Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called a "catastrophe," also underscored the quickly deteriorating security situation around the Afghan capital.

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