Al-Qaida claims responsibility for Algeria attacks

The group described the attacks on a police academy, a military barracks and a Canadian engineering firm as retaliation against security forces for their crackdown on militants, described as "Mujahedeen," or holy warriors.

The attacks "follow the perfidious operation, where a number of young Mujahedeen have been killed," said a man identified as Salah Abu Mohammed, an al-Qaida spokesman, in a tape delivered to the Al-Jazeera news channel.

There was no way to authenticate Friday's message but in the past militant groups have often delivered responsibility claims via Al-Jazeera.

Up to 60 people were killed in the attacks carried out in less than 24 hours.

On Tuesday, a suicide bomber rammed a car full of explosives into a line of applicants waiting to register at a police academy, killing at least 43 in the town of Les Issers, some 35 miles east of the capital, Algiers.

At dawn the next day, twin car bombs targeted a military headquarters and a passenger bus in the neighboring town of Bouira, 55 miles southeast of Algiers. The twelve killed in Bouira were employees of a Canadian engineering firm.

Security and hospital officials say another five have since died of their injuries from the attacks.

The audio tape stated the attack in Bouira was conducted by a man named Abdel Rahman Abu Zenib al-Muritani, or "the Mauritanian."

Abu Mohammed, the al-Qaida spokesman, said in the statement that his group does not target civilians--only government security forces and foreign interests in Algeria.