INTERVIEW-Algeria bombs may be self-defeating - General

By William Maclean

ALGIERS, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda-linked suicide bombings intended to topple the Algerian state could backfire by uniting society against the perpetrators, one of the most powerful military figures in the north African country said on Thursday.

Major-General Khaled Nezzar, a former army chief and defence minister, told Reuters that rebels who carried out a string of bombings this week had drawn strength from al Qaeda financial and media links and in the process become more radical in their ideology.

But he suggested the "kamikaze" strategy was self-defeating.

"The would-be suicide candidate makes the target more united and strengthens it, so that it will confront it by all means," he said in written replies to submitted questions.

"If the suicide attack is impressive, it demonstrates at the same time the weakness of those who use it."

In the latest attacks in the bloodiest week of unrest in years, two car bombs in Bouira town southeast of Algiers on Wednesday killed 12 people and wounded 42.

The Iraq-style urban bombings reflect tactics first adopted in 2007 by the militants fighting for purist Islamic rule in the North African country of 34 million, a gas exporter to Europe.

The rebels had previously specialised in ambushing troops in remote areas, analysts said.