Suicide bomber attacks Algerian security base

At least 15 people were wounded on Saturday when a suicide bomber drove a four-wheel drive vehicle packed with explosives at a paramilitary police base in a Sahara desert town, local media and security officials said.   

The attack was at a gendarme headquarters in the centre of Tamanrasset, an oasis about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) south of the Algerian capital, and near the border with Mali and Niger.  

A Toyota jeep exploded after it was driven at the perimeter wall of the gendarme base at 7:48 a.m., according to the online edition of Algeria's Ennahar newspaper.  

The fifteen people injured in the blast included gendarmes and civilians, some of whom were on a bus which was driving past at the moment of the explosion, the newspaper said.   

Security officials confirmed to Reuters the newspaper's account of the attack. It was not immediately clear exactly how many people had died or who was responsible.   

Al Qaeda's North African wing, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, has been carrying out an insurgency in Algeria. It frequently targets security forces.

Reuters