Al Qaeda's north Africa wing said it was behind two suicide attacks that killed at least 57 people in Algeria in the past two days, Al Jazeera television said yesterday.
The suicide truck bomb destroyed the coastguards barracks in Algeria yesterday, killing 37 people, hospital sources said.
The blast in the port of Dellys 100 km (62 miles) east of Algiers followed the suicide bombing in Batna that killed 20 people in an attack seen by the government as a bid to wreck efforts to end 15 years of political violence.
The interior ministry said the blast was carried out by two attackers who killed themselves in the attack. It was not immediately clear if they were included in the death toll of 30 published by the ministry. It said 47 people were wounded.
North African countries have recently stepped up security coordination to counter armed groups seeking to establish Islamic rule in a region on Europe's southern flank that depends to a large extent on oil and gas exports and tourism.
Al-Qaeda's No. 2 commander, Egyptian cleric Ayman al-Zawahri, referred to north Africa in a broadcast in July and said the region's "corrupt" governments should be removed.
Authorities called on Algerians to stage rallies for peace throughout the country, Africa's second biggest, today.
In New York, France's UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, current Security Council president, recalled the 15-member body's sharp criticism of the Batna attack. "This condemnation must obviously be reiterated with strength, after the new heinous terrorist attack committed in Dellys," he said.
Former colonial power France also deplored the attack. The foreign ministry said France sent "the most sincere condolences to the families of the victims, to those close to them and to the Algerian authorities and the Algerian people, plunged into mourning by this new expression of terrorism."
The bomber in Batna blew himself up among a crowd of people waiting to see President Abdelaziz Bouteflika make a scheduled visit to the town. It was the first time a suicide attacker in Algeria had detonated a bomb strapped to his body, rather than using a car bomb, Algerians say.