Suicide Attacker on Algeria Police Post Identified

Algerian authorities have identified a suicide attacker who killed one person and wounded three at a paramilitary police headquarters in the town of Ouargla, al-Watan newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Investigators have "identified the DNA of the attacker," local commander Colonel Tahar Othmani was quoted as saying on al-Watan's website, without naming the person.

They also have the serial number of the car used in the attack and of the Kalashnikov assault rifle that was used.

A Mali-based Islamist group has already claimed responsibility for the dawn attack on Friday.

The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) said in a text message to AFP in Mali's capital Bamako that a young Algerian from the southern town had carried out the attack in a 4X4 packed with almost 1,300 kilograms of explosives.

According to reports cited by the APS news agency, the attack was carried out "by a terrorist who sought to break into the headquarters building in his vehicle, after an exchange of fire with gendarmes."

The term "terrorist" is generally used in Algeria to describe armed Islamist militants, mainly active in the northeast of the country.

The MUJAO spokesman said the group accused Algeria of encouraging Tuareg rebels to go to war with it, although the secular MNLA Tuaregs had got together with the Islamists three months ago to take control of the vast north of Mali.

Ouargla is a town of almost 150,000 people, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of the coastal capital.