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ALGIERS-Grieving relatives crowded a morgue in the Algerian capital on Wednesday as the official death toll from twin Al-Qaeda suicide bombings rose to 31, and rescuers gave up their search for survivors.The United Nations said 11 of its staff were killed by one of the suicide bombers who targeted a UN office in Algiers Tuesday, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had ordered a worldwide security review.With death tolls ranging from 31 stated by the government to 72 given by leading newspaper Al Watan, seven people were pulled alive from the debris of the offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other UN agencies.The second attack killed and maimed students packed in a bus as it passed a car that was detonated outside the Supreme Court in central Algiers.While the first fatalities were being buried, other families gathered at the morgue or waited outside the wrecked UN offices until rescuers with sniffer dogs finally gave up hope of finding anyone else alive.The seventh person found, a 40-year-old woman, was dragged out in the early hours of Wednesday. She was taken to a military hospital where surgeons were to amputate her two legs, medical officials said.She told rescuers there was a least one other person still trapped in the tangle of concrete and iron, but it was not clear if any other survivors were found.Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci told French radio that the dead included five foreigners.Hospital sources told AFP there were 62 dead and about 100 injured.Al-Watan newspaper cited medical sources who put the number of dead at 72.The United Nations said at least 11 of its staff were killed and several were still unaccounted for.Three of the UN victims were foreigners, including Philippine national Gene Luna, 48, who had only taken up her post in Algiers one week ago.The World Food Programme said most of its staff had been outside the office on a training course when the blast occurred, saving many lives.UN chief Ban led international condemnation of the attacks and vowed to protect UN staff."We will take every measure to ensure their safety, in Algeria and elsewhere, beginning with an immediate review of our security precautions and policies," he said."Words cannot express my sense of shock, outrage and anger at the terrorist attack on the UN mission in Algiers."The Algiers attacks were the worst on UN facilities since the August 19, 2003 truck bombing of the UN office in Baghdad, which killed 22 people including special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.[[[[[Al-Qaeda's Branch in the Islamic Maghreb (BAQMI) claimed responsibility for the bombs in a statement published on an Islamist website, the authenticity of which could not be immediately confirmed.The group hailed the "success of two martyr operations" in the statement and showed photographs of two suicide bombers, named as Abdel Rahmane al-Assmi and Ammi Ibrahim Abou Othmane, both carrying assault rifles.China and the Arab states added their voices to the chorus of international condemnation.]]]]] A Chinese construction company said one of its workers was killed, according to China Central Television.Saudi King Abdullah told Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika by telephone that Riyadh condemned the "criminal explosions".It was the latest of a series of bombings in the capital and other major Algerian cities this year that have killed more than 120 people. The Al-Qaeda offshoot has claimed responsibility for all of them.The group changed its name this year from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat and pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.On September 6, a suicide attack targeting Bouteflika's convoy killed 22 people, while another suicide attack east of Algiers killed 30.Bombs in the Algerian capital on April 11 killed 33 people.The government has been engaged in a bloody conflict with Islamic radicals since soon after the army cancelled December 1991 elections won by an Islamist group.
PS:These "elements"are nothing else but Islamic Beasts....idol worship ALWAYS darkens the understanding....I would have liked to hear more outrage from muslims everywhere though....
As in the days of Noah....
