Algeria death toll at least 34, including 11 UN staff

Thu Dec 13, 3:21 PM ET

ALGIERS (AFP) - The death toll from twin car bomb attacks in Algeria rose to at least 34 Thursday, including 11 UN staff, officials said, after more bodies were recovered from the ruins of the UN offices.

Rescue workers aided by sniffer dogs combed the rubble of the buildings as hopes dimmed of finding survivors two days after the blasts.

Two senior UN bosses flew into Algiers to evaluate the aftermath of the explosions, which were claimed by the Al-Qaeda's Branch in the Islamic Maghreb (BAQMI).

Kemal Dervis, administrator for the UN Development Programme, and Sir David Veness, the under secretary general for safety and security, met Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem and Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci.

At least 11 employees of UN agencies had been killed, Dervis told a news conference afterwards.

He did not differentiate between employees of the different agencies targeted, saying they were all members of the UN family.

According to UN officials, at least five more staff are still unaccounted for, possibly still trapped under the debris.

Rescue workers said they had pulled out two more bodies from the ruined UN buildings late Thursday. It was unclear whether they were included in official tolls.

Meanwhile, hospital sources gave a death toll of around double the official interior ministry figure of 34. The injured toll stood at 170.

Offices of the UNDP, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Labour Organisation were razed in the attacks.

Algerian government buildings were also targeted, according to Algeria's interior ministry.

However, Dervis said that the work of the United Nations in Algeria would continue, saying that it was seeking new premises for the 145 people employed, 115 of them Algerians.

President George W. Bush on Thursday telephoned his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika and "offered condolences for the loss of innocent lives at the hand of extremists," said the US leader's spokeswoman Dana Perino.

And Bush "reiterated his commitment to continuing US counterterrorism cooperation in North Africa in order to bring the perpetrators to justice," she added.

Algerian security services are searching for any accomplices of the two bombers, fearing more waves of attacks.

After an attack on April 11 against the government palace in Algiers, plotters waited until July 11 for a deadly blast against army barracks in the eastern town of Lakdaria.

Then on September 6 two attempted bomb attacks took place against the presidential cortege in Batna and, the next day, against another barracks at Dellys.

"Their strategy, inspired by the military teachings of the prophet Mohammed, based on alternating attacks with retreats, is a strong point of the BAQMI, but it also reveals their weakness," said one Algerian terrorism expert who declined to be named.

One of Tuesday's suicide bombers who drove an explosives-packed car into the buildings was 64 years old.

Asked about the motives for the attacks, Dervis said, "I cannot explain terrorism -- no cause, no belief, no religion, no injustice can justify such acts."

The Algiers attacks were the bloodiest on UN facilities since the August 19, 2003 truck bomb blast at the UN office in Baghdad, which killed 22 people including special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.