Two assassination attempts took place on Monday in Blida, according to images and contradictory information circulating on social networks, confirmed for Le Figaro by local sources. This city with approximately 300,000 inhabitants is located 50 kilometers south of Algiers, being closely watched by the security forces on the occasion of the visit of Pope Leo XIV, reports News.ro.
These attacks have not been officially confirmed by the Algerian authorities. While some testimonies report that the two kamikazes would have been killed by law enforcement, others say that they would have had time to activate their explosive belts.
Algeria had not recorded a terrorist attack since 2017.
On August 31, a suicide bomber with an explosive belt tried to enter the police headquarters in Tiaret, 350 km southwest of Algiers. Daesh (Islamic State) claimed the attack, in which the suicide bombers and two policemen died.
“I think it's a media attack (while Algeria welcomes the pope for a two-day visit, no), probably the work of a microgroup or lone wolves,” believes Akram Kharief, the creator of the Menadefense.net blog and an expert on military issues.
In the 1990s, the groups from the Atlas Blidéen area were among the most active in the country and the closest to Algiers.
The region was in the center of the “triangle of death”, between Blida, Médéa and Aïn Defla, stronghold of the GIA group during the so-called “black decade”.
Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) currently has fewer than 1,000 members, pushed by the military into the guerrilla zones of Kabylia and the south, according to the US National Counterterrorism Center.
