CAIRO, Egypt – The North African branch of Al Qaeda claims it organized the suicide bombing that killed at least 10 Algerian soldiers and wounded 35, the Al-Jazeera TV network reported Wednesday.
"Our martyr, with God's help and might, managed to infiltrate the heart of the military camp ... and exploded in the middle of the courtyard," said a recording from an alleged spokesman forAl Qaeda in Islamic North Africa.
Al-Jazeera TV did not give the spokesman's name, or say how it obtained his recording.
Its authenticity could not be independently verified.
Earlier Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew up a refrigerated truck packed with explosives inside a military encampment southeast of the Algerian capital, killing 10 soldiers and wounding up to 35, Algerian security officials said.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make statements to the media.
The unidentified Al Qaeda spokesman claimed the attack had killed some 70 soldiers, made dozens of wounded and destroyed eight military vehicles.
The suicide bombing — a new tactic in Algeria — came the day of the opening of the Africa Games, one of the continent's biggest sporting events — with venues in Algiers and the towns of Blida, south of the capital, and Boumerdes, to the east. Lakhdaria sits midway between Blida and Boumerdes.
Soldiers fanned out throughout the region after the bombing, allegedly carried out by a youth who recently joined a holdout insurgency group linked to Al Qaeda, the security official said.
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