Al Qaeda varies targets with twin Algeria strikes

By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - Two car bombs in heavily guarded areas of Algeria's capital show the government's failure to get a grip on militants who have regrouped under al Qaeda's banner and struck both state and international targets on Tuesday.

Western security sources appeared shocked by the ease with which suspected militants of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the North African arm of Osama bin Laden's network, evaded heightened security in Algiers and detonated bombs that killed 67, according to a health ministry source.

"The fact they've been able to get this done is regarded as highly unusual," a U.S. official said.

One European official said the targeting of a U.N. building -- in line with past al Qaeda statements denouncing the world body as an agent of injustice against Muslims -- was a significant new departure for AQIM, which has previously focused on Algerian state symbols and foreign energy workers.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said there was no doubt the U.N. site had been deliberately targeted, and called it a tragedy and an outrage. The other bomb went off outside the Constitutional Court.

"It's proof once again that the Algerian security apparatus is not in control of the situation," French counter-terrorism consultant Claude Moniquet said.

While there was no claim of responsibility for Tuesday's blasts, the government was quick to blame the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the movement that reinvented itself as AQIM in January.

QAEDA BRAND