U.S. Embassy In Algeria Warns Of Attacks

Extremists in Algeria may be plotting to attack a commercial airliner carrying Western workers, the U.S. Embassy in this North African country said.

The embassy said officials have no specific details about which airline might be targeted or when the suspected plot could be carried out. Algeria is already subject to a State Department travel warning that says the risk of terrorism in parts of the country is significant.

The embassy warning was posted on its Web site Monday. On Tuesday, the British Embassy said it was also aware of reports of possible plots against planes flying into Algeria and said it was in contact with local authorities.

An al Qaeda affiliate has recently carried out a deadly and carefully planned series of bomb attacks in Algeria. Several targeted foreign workers.

Islamic extremists killed a Russian engineer and three Algerians in a March 3 bombing of a bus carrying workers for a Russian company. A December attack targeting a bus carrying foreign employees of an affiliate of Halliburton near Algiers killed an Algerian and a Lebanese citizen and rattled expatriates.

Al Qaeda in Islamic North Africa — the new name for the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French abbreviation GSPC — claimed responsibility for both attacks.

The resurgence of violence has surprised Algeria, which has been slowly emerging from an Islamic insurgency that has killed an estimated 150,000 people.

Foreigners were a prime target of Algerian extremists in the 1990s, at the height of the insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state. However, targeting foreigners later grew increasingly rare.