Suicide bomber hits Algerian army

The security forces immediately sealed off the scene of the blasts

A suicide bomber has blown himself up near a military barracks in a suburb of the Algerian capital Algiers.

The bomber died and several people were injured in a series of blasts.

Two bombs went off in a cafe used by soldiers, local TV says, while the bomber detonated the explosives he was carrying near the barracks.

It is the first major bomb attack in the region of Algiers since a court building and the UN were targeted last December.

Police and ambulances rushed to the Bordj el-Kiffan neighbourhood in the immediate aftermath of the blasts.

Last December, 41 people, including 17 UN employees, were killed.

The North African wing of al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for that attack, and for many other bombings throughout Algeria and the region.

It is not immediately clear who is responsible for this latest incident, but suspicion will certainly fall on al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Algeria is less violent than it was during the dark years of its civil war, but some commentators say an unacknowledged war is being fought between the state and groups like al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.