Algeria arrests 2 for suspected links to suicide attack

By Abdul Razak bin Abdullah

ALGIERS (AA) - The Algerian authorities have arrested two people suspected of involvement in last month’s suicide attack on a security directorate that left two policemen dead, the country’s Defense Ministry announced Saturday.

“Army forces, in coordination with the National Gendarmerie, arrested two individuals on Friday for suspected links to the terrorist operation that targeted a security directorate,” read a ministry statement.

On Aug. 31, a policeman was killed -- and a second later succumbed to injuries -- when a suicide bomber blew himself inside a security directorate in Algeria’s northwestern Tiaret province.

Responsibility for the attack was later claimed by the Daesh terrorist group.

The attack was not the first of its kind. In February, security forces foiled a suicide attack on a police station -- also later claimed by Daesh -- in Algeria’s northeastern city of Constantine.

The following month, the Algerian military claimed to have killed Noureddine Laouira, the “emir” of Daesh’s Algerian affiliate, in the same city.

Algeria is also contending with a second terrorist group: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), some elements of which are said to have pledged allegiance to Daesh.