ALGIERS, Algeria - Al-Qaida-linked militants are winning recruits from the margins of Algerian society for a new strategy of high-impact attacks, details emerging from last week's bombings in Algiers suggest.
The methods of al-Qaida in North Africa have been denounced by former leaders of the Islamic insurgency that peaked in the 1990s and left up to 200,000 people dead.
"I condemn it, and I am ready to work to stop this bloodletting," said Madani Mezrag, who headed the Armed Islamic Group, an insurgency movement, before signing a cease-fire with Algerian authorities in 1997 and being pardoned by the government.
"For me, today's rebellion in Algeria has no name," Mezrag said. "Al-Qaida today is an umbrella. Everyone works and al-Qaida signs for it, it's easy."
Last Wednesday's car bombings targeted a government building housing the prime minister's office in central Algiers and a police station on the outskirts of the capital, killing 30 people and wounding up to 330.
The attacks were claimed by al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, the name adopted in January by Algeria's Salafist Group for Call and Combat, better known by its French initials GSPC.
The attacks have dealt a blow to the Algerian government as it seemed to be turning the page on the drawn-out civil conflict. The violence began in 1992 after the army canceled the country's first multiparty national elections to prevent a Muslim fundamentalist party from claiming victory. Fighting in recent years had been reduced to sporadic attacks.
Demonstrations against the attacks Tuesday were confined to the sports stadium in the capital, which has been under a state of emergency for 15 years. Marchers chanted: "No to Algeria's destruction!" and "The fight against terrorism goes on.".....
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