News from Algeria 2007

[Al-khiyal]

An illegal immigrant has been given 160 hours of community service after fraudulently claiming £17,000 in incapacity benefit by pretending to be someone else.

Kamal Bousbaci, 43, was ordered to pay £4000 in compensation at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday. An Algerian citizen, Bousbaci came to the UK in 1987 on a one-month visa but stayed and used the identity of Belkacem Haddadi, thought to be a French Algerian.

Bousbaci, of Inchkeith Court, Spey Terrace, found work as a cleaner, but in 2001 he became ill and claimed incapacity benefit under his assumed name.

The Work and Pensions Investigation Service received information that a man suspected of fraudulently using a French passport was living in Edinburgh. The investigations led to the arrest of Bousbaci. Bousbaci pled guilty in November last year to obtaining £17,079 by fraud between April 2001 and June 2005.

Defence agent Richard Soutar said Bousbaci had been genuinely ill when he claimed the benefit.

Sheriff James Farrell said: "Normally when one reads a charge of someone obtaining money by fraud it is usually a person who is not incapacitated.

"This is not your situation, because . . . you were genuinely incapacitated.

"The fraud arose out of the fact that you were paid this benefit by pretending to be somebody else, namely Haddadi, whoever he is."

Illegal immigrant claimed £17k in incapacity benefit

[FORTUNATO]

Sheriff James Farrell said: "Normally when one reads a charge of someone obtaining money by fraud it is usually a person who is not incapacitated.

"This is not your situation, because . . . you were genuinely incapacitated.

"The fraud arose out of the fact that you were paid this benefit by pretending to be somebody else, namely Haddadi, whoever he is."

Illegal immigrant claimed £17k in incapacity benefit

I Hope is not member of algeria.com and claim to be in UK...

IN ALGERIAN WE SAYS:... did you see KHOKOM

[Al-khiyal]

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the deadly bombings in Algeria on Tuesday, al Jazeera television said.

It said the group, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, made the claim in a telephone call to its office in the Moroccan capital Rabat. "Qaeda's organisation in the Islamic states of Maghreb adopted the bombings in Algeria," Jazeera said.

Seven bombs went off almost simultaneously in Algeria on Tuesday, killing six people east of the capital Algiers.

Al Qaeda unit claims Algeria blasts

[Al-khiyal]

CAIRO, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa on Tuesday strongly condemned "the terrorist attacks" which occurred in east Algeria earlier in the day, Egypt's MENA news agency reported.

In a statement released by the Cairo-based AL, Moussa said the 22-member league vehemently denounced the unjustified criminal act while expressing the AL's solidarity with Algeria in its battle against terror attacks on innocent people.

Earlier in the day, a series of car bombings ripped through a police station in the east Algerian region of Kabylie, which killed about six people and injured over 10 others, according to the Algerian Interior Ministry.

Arab League chief condemns "terror attacks" in Algeria

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS, Feb 13 (KUNA) -- Another bomb explosion took place in Bobher Village in Tizi Ouzou Province, 67 kilometers east of Algiers, on Tuesday, leaving one person injured.

The Algerian Interior Ministry said in a release that another bombing occured in Boher Village in Ilola Omalu, Tizi Ouzou Province, leaving one person injured and smashing the windows of several nearby buildings.

Residents near the bombing site were thrown into panic over the explosion, it added.

Some eleven people were killed and 21 others were injured in five bomb car explosions in Algeria Tuesday morning.

The first bomb car blast involving two cars took place at the Security Directorate at Zeraa bin Kheda in Tizi Ouzou Province, leaving three policemen dead and 12 others wounded. The building was destroyed and several nearby facilities were damaged, an Algerian security source said.

The second bomb car explosion occurred in Maklaa in the same province of Tizi Ouzou, leaving two people dead and another one seriously injured, and damaging the security building and nearby facilities, the source added.

The third car bombing involving three cars happened in Boumerdes Province, claiming the lives of six people and injury of nine others, and smashing the windows of nearby buildings, the source said.

Further bomb blast occurs in Algeria, one injured

[Al-khiyal]

Two Tunisians and three Algerians were arrested by the Algerian police on Sunday (February 10th), near Constantine. The four detainees allegedly belong to a group smuggling weapons and stolen vehicles, and using corridors through the Tunisian and Libyan borders inside Algeria.

Algerian police dismantle weapon-smuggling network

[Al-khiyal]

PARIS, Feb 14 (KUNA) -- France on Wednesday strongly condemned the seven, coordinated bomb attacks that struck eastern Algeria Tuesday night, killing six people and wounding at least 13 others number of people and causing widespread damage.

The attacks, mainly in the Kabile area, were claimed by groups linked with the Al-Qaida radical movement.

"We strongly condemn the seven attacks that targeted the representatives of law and order forces in Algeria," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"We are at the side of Algeria in its fight against terrorism," the Ministry added.

France strongly condemns series of Algeria bombings