Military-post car bomb kills 10 soldiers

A suicide bomber blew up a refrigerated truck packed with explosives inside a military encampment south-east of the Algerian capital Algiers today, killing 10 soldiers and wounding up to 35, a security official said.

The truck drove into the post on the edge of Lakhdaria, some 50 miles from Algiers, as the doors opened in the morning for arriving personnel, said the security official.

Eight people were initially reported dead by panicked residents of the area.

The security official confirmed that information and said two more soldiers died on their way to a hospital, bringing the total number of deaths to 10 with 35 injured.

Soldiers fanned out throughout the region after the bombing, allegedly carried out by a youth who recently joined a holdout insurgency group linked to al Qaida, the security official said.

There was no official confirmation of the attack, which came the day of the opening of the Africa Games, one of the continent’s biggest sporting events - with venues in Algiers and the towns of Blida, south of the capital, and Boumerdes, to the east. Lakhdaria sits midway between Blida and Boumerdes.

No one immediately claimed responsibility.