Algeria detains more militants linked to bombings

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian security forces, hunting militants linked to bombings claimed by al Qaeda, have arrested 11 people suspected of involvement in a car bomb attack on a police station, newspapers reported.

Aged between 20 and 34 years, the suspects are being detained pending trial on charges of involvement in the Jan. 29 attack that killed three people and wounded 23 in Thenia, east of Algiers, El Watan daily said on Sunday.

Liberte newspaper said the 11 included a London-based Algerian suspected of involvement in the import of a car used in the attack.

It said a customs employee at Algiers port was also among those arrested. Liberte said the employee was suspected of helping rebels import the car illegally and take it to one of their strongholds, where the registration number was changed.

Last week, the interior ministry said security forces had killed a rebel leader and arrested six of his accomplices suspected of involvement in a twin bombing on a court building and U.N. offices in Algiers on Dec. 11 and an attack on foreign oil workers.

Al Qaeda's North African wing, which claimed the Thenia attack, has said it was behind the double suicide bombing that killed 41 people, including 17 United Nations staff.

Police chief Ali Tounsi said on Saturday the government was planning to expand police forces to 200,000 by 2010 from 140,000 now to step up the fight against Islamist rebels and cope with rising crime in major cities.

Algeria is emerging from years of conflict that began when the military-backed government scrapped legislative elections in 1992 that a radical Islamic party was poised to win. Up to 200,000 people have been killed in related violence.