Echoes of past as Algeria probes Iraq bomb link

By Lamine Chikhi

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Islamist fighters returning from Iraq pose a serious threat in Algeria, security sources say, recalling how mass bloodshed in the 1990s was fuelled by veterans of the war in Afghanistan.

The numbers involved are much smaller than the cohorts of "Algerian Afghans" who came home a decade or more ago and plunged into a civil war that killed some 200,000 Algerians but they have the potential to cause devastation.

Authorities investigating a triple suicide bombing that killed 33 in the capital Algiers on April 11 have arrested 80 Algerian Islamists who made recent visits to Iraq. Most are suspected of taking part in the insurgency against the government and U.S.-led coalition forces there.

In recent months Algeria, a major oil and gas producer, has seen a major upsurge in violence from Islamist radicals who rebranded themselves late last year as "al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb".

This month's suicide bombings in Algiers, including one at the government headquarters, have revived fears of a descent back into the civil strife of the 1990s.

Western security sources use the term "blowback" to describe the danger that foreign fighters in Iraq, experienced and battle-hardened, may return to their own countries in the Arab world or even Europe and carry out attacks there.

"There is a big concern about the 'Algerian Iraqis'' capability of launching more suicide attacks," said Mounir Boudjemaa, security analyst and editor of Liberte newspaper.

"But unlike the 'Algerian Afghans' in the 1990s who were estimated at a minimum of 1,000, the Algerian Iraqis are not numerous," he added.