A booby-trapped car exploded at a barracks housing coast guard officials in Algeria today, killing at least 17 people and injuring about 30, the country’s official news agency reported, citing hospital authorities.

Security forces killed a man described as the military adviser to the head of an al Qaida affiliate in Algeria in an assault on a mountain hide-out, it was reported.

The death toll from yesterday’s al-Qaida-claimed suicide bombings in Algeria today rose to 33, the government said.

Extremists in Algeria may be plotting to attack a commercial airliner carrying Western workers, the US Embassy in the north African country has said.

More than two dozen Islamic extremists involved in a deadly fire fight with police this month had blueprints of foreign embassies and documents naming foreign envoys, Tunisia’s official news agency quoted the interior minister as saying today.

Al-Qaida number two Ayman al-Zawahiri called for attacks against France in a video and designated an Algerian insurgency movement as the terrorist organisation’s armed wing in the European country, a terror expert said today.

Security forces found 28 dead bodies, including those of 21 children, in a secluded cave used as a hide out by an Algerian Islamic militant group, it was reported today.

Spanish police arrested 15 people today suspected of recruiting people for Iraq’s insurgency, including possible suicide attacks, breaking up a cell in close contact with al-Qaida and terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, officials said.

Spanish police have arrested at least seven people suspected of financing Islamic terrorism, news reports said today.

A Spanish judge is today expected to question 11 people arrested last week on suspicion of financing and giving logistical support to an Islamic extremist group linked to al-Qaida.

Authorities have arrested three Algerians suspected of preparing a terrorist attack in Italy, news reports said today.

Police in France and Italy detained a total of 18 people today, targeting a group suspected of planning terror attacks in Europe.

Italian police arrested at least three Algerians today after they were convicted of providing logistical support to a terrorist group linked to al-Qaida, officials said.

Italian and Lebanese authorities have arrested 10 alleged terrorists, thwarting plans to blow up the Italian Embassy in Beirut in a car bomb attack.

ONE of North Africa’s most-wanted terror leaders, who allied his group with Osama bin Laden, has been killed, the Algerian military said yesterday.

An Algerian terror leader who allied himself with Osama bin Laden has been killed, it was reported today.

Squeezed out of sanctuaries elsewhere in the world, Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror group may be looking to the deserts and jungles of Africa as a haven to train recruits and plan new attacks, the deputy head of US forces in Europe says.

Fourteen European tourists arrived in Germany today, ending a six month ordeal in the Sahara as hostages of a group linked to al-Qaida.

A group linked to al-Qaida was behind the Sahara Desert kidnapping of 17 European tourists who were free today after more than two months in custody, the Algerian army said.

EXPLOSIVE and chemical attacks planned for continental Europe and London, were foiled by police raids in two countries yesterday.

The Algerian army is hunting a group of armed Islamic rebels hiding in the eastern scrubland that is believed to count two al-Qaida members among its ranks.

Spanish police have arrested a second Syrian man suspected of funding operations by Osama bin Laden’s al Qaida network.

Algerian security forces have killed 11 suspected members of an Islamic insurgency group in sweeps east of the capital.