Bombers strike at exclusive Algiers districts

By Lamine Chikhi and Hamild Ould Ahmed

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Bodies and burning debris littered some of the leafiest, most affluent neighbourhoods of Algiers on Tuesday as bombers sent a defiant message to a government trying to bury Algeria's unhappy past.

At least 67 people were killed in the twin car bomb attacks on the Mediterranean port city's Ben Aknoun and Hydra districts. Scores were wounded.

A sharp cracking sound, followed by the thump of a shock wave, shook the walled villas and winding alleyways that lie amid palm trees atop a hill above the port and its immense curving bay.

It was followed minutes later by a second blast.

"This is terrible -- take cover!" shouted a resident as windows forced open by the strength of the blast swung wildly in a house a kilometre (half a mile) from the Ben Aknoun blast.

A witness to the Hydra blast said: "I saw at least one foreigner injured. He lost his leg, he was speaking in English."

Amid the fear, there was also fury.

Looking at the destruction in Hydra, a young women told a reporter: "We should do something to express our anger. We must stage a march to denounce terrorism, but also to urge the government to do more to protect us."