Two people were killed and 17 wounded when Islamist rebels exploded truck bombs outside two police stations east of Algiers overnight.
The simultaneous attacks in the town of Reghaia 30 km east of the capital Algiers and the eastern Algiers suburb of Dergana were the most elaborate in years by Islamist groups seeking to set up a purist Islamic state, according to sources.
The explosion in Reghaia burned parts of the two-storey building, gouged a hole in the pavement at least one metre deep, shattered windows for several blocks and hurled parts of the truck more than 100 metres from the scene. Eighteen cars were burned out.
Few details were immediately available about the blast in Dergana as police had cordoned off the scene.
Asecurity source said the damage was minor in Dergana and that most if not all the casualties had occurred in Reghaia.
Sporadic clashes between Islamist guerrillas and security forces normally take place in isolated rural areas of the oil- and gas-producing Mediterranean country of 33 million.
Residents said the Reghaia attack began when gunmen firing automatic weapons hurled a grenade at the entrance to the building at about midnight.
At the same time, accomplices parked a truck rigged with explosives at the side of the building and then made their getaway in a car before setting off the bomb, apparently using a remote-controlled device, the residents said.
A security source said the vehicle appeared to have been a rubbish truck stuffed with 60 kg of explosives. The vehicle used in the Dergana attack was probably a car, he said.
Islamists began an armed revolt in 1992 after the then military backed authorities, fearing an Iran-style revolution, scrapped a parliamentary election that an Islamist political party, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), was set to win.
Up to 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the ensuing bloodshed.