Three people were killed and 24 wounded in near-simultaneous truck bomb attacks on two Algerian police stations, police said on Monday, in what witnesses called the most elaborate assault by rebels in several years.
The apparently co-ordinated overnight blasts in Reghaia town 30 km (20 miles) east of the capital and the eastern Algiers suburb of Dergana were the first bombings of police stations in Africa's second largest country for more than five years.
Police said the three dead, a woman and two men, were all civilians. A police statement said a stolen vehicle was used in each attack. The Reghaia attack took place at 2355 (2255 gmt), that at Dergana 10 minutes later, the statement said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but experts, residents and security sources blamed the main rebel group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has consistently refused peace overtures from the government and announced in September it had joined al Qaeda.