ALGIERS, Algeria – A group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said it carried out a bomb attack in Algeria, which wounded nine people. It is the latest of a string of attacks that have stymied the Algerian government’s effort to get beyond an insurgency that devastated the country since the 1990s.

A car rammed into an Algerian police convoy escorting workers for the French company Razel to a dam it is building in the region. Two French workers, one Italian, their Algerian driver, and five police officers were injured as a result of that attack. It occurred a day after al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri released a video message saying that French and Spaniards should be “cleansed” from North Africa.

Earlier this month, Algeria was hit by two suicide attacks that killed more than 50 people. In August, the group also staged two deadly attacks that killed more than 50 people and wounded more than 140.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – ‘Al-Qaeda’ claims Algeria bombing – 21 September 2007

BBC News – Algeria bomb attack injures nine – 21 September 2007

NY Times – Bomb hits European workers – 22 September 2007