ALGIERS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Fifteen people were
killed and scores of others wounded in a suicide bombing attack in eastern
Algeria on Thursday, local television reported.
The attack took place at the town of Batna, some 450
km east of the capital of Algiers, apparently targeting President Abdelaziz
Bouteflika who had planned to visit the region.
The bomber who was among the crowd waiting the
president detonated the explosives he was carrying before the president arrived,
witnesses said.
An initial report put the toll at 11 killed.
The president visited the victim in a hospital and
condemned the attack during a speech on television shortly after the bombing.
He pledged to continue a national reconciliation
program which would grant pardon to Islamic extremists who give up violence.
No individuals or groups have claimed responsibility
for the bombing at the time being.
In July, Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid
Zerhouni vowed to continue to fight rebel militant groups in response to a
suicide truck bombing that killed eight soldiers southeast of Algiers.
Zerhouni said such attacks would never " undermine the
determination of security services to fight these groups."
Moreover, two car bomb attacks in April killed 33 people
and injured more than 220 in Algiers.
