TWO car bombs exploded in Algiers yesterday, killing at least 17 people and wounding 93 in the city caught in conflict between Algerian security forces and Muslim fundamentalists.
The explosions - targeting a town hall and a building housing some of Algeria's main newspapers - undermined official efforts through censorship to play down the four year old conflict with Muslim rebels in which an estimated 50,000 people have died.
Security forces said the second bomb at 3 p.m., six hours after the first, killed 17 people and wounded 52.
One eyewitness said a bus was passing when the bomb exploded by the offices of the newspaper, Le Soir d'Algerie, in the centre of the Algerian capital. "There are a lot of casualties."
The offices of Le Soir d'Algerie are in a newspaper centre known as La Maison de la Presse, in Belcourt, along with offices of other main newspapers, including El Watan and Al Khabar.
The dead included at least one journalist and one newspaper employee, journalists said. "A journalist working for Le Soir d'Algerie and a technician working for the same daily were among those killed," said one.
The security forces, in a statement carried by the official news agency APS, said the blast also caused serious damage.
Earlier yesterday a powerful bomb exploded in Bab el Oued, a crowded working class area near the old casbah and a stronghold of Islamic militants. Forty one people were wounded, six of them seriously. The bomb badly damaged the town hall and could be heard more than 3 km away.
Yesterday's bombs brought to four the number in one week. The two earlier bombs, in the towns of Miliana and Ain Bessam, killed at, least 11 people and wounded 52 between them. The attacks followed a government warning to journalists only to carry the official version of security matters - mainly success stories of security, forces killing Muslim guerrillas, with few if any details of casualties among security forces.
On Saturday suspected Islamic militants shot dead a journalist working for Algeria's main workers union journal. Algeria's state run radio reported the killing of Abdallah Bouhachek (44) yesterday. He was editor of Revolution et Travail (Revolution and Labour), the journal of the Union Generale des Travailleurs Algeriens. The union has backed the army backed government against the Muslim guerrillas who have been fighting since Algiers cancelled a general election in 1992 dominated by the Islamists.
More than 60 journalists and media employees have been killed since 1993 in attacks blamed by the authorities on the guerrillas who accuse the media of backing the government.
Algeria's four independent dailies accused the government of trying to blindfold opinion by last week's new directives.
President Liamine Zeroual promised to continue his efforts through dialogue to find an answer to the conflict but also warned that security forces would pursue their offensive against guerrillas.