US embassy in Algeria warns of possible threat

Extremists in Algeria may be plotting to attack a commercial airliner carrying Western workers, the US Embassy in the north African country has 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 travel warning by the US Department of State, which says the terror risk in parts of Algeria is significant.

The embassy’s warning was posted on its website yesterday. An al-Qaida 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 US energy giant Halliburton near Algiers killed two Algerians and rattled expatriates.

Al-Qaida 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.