Noblesse Oblige

Twin coordinated bombings in Algeria have the fingerprints of Al Qaeda in Algeria all over them. One against the UN refugee agency, the other was a car bomb near the supreme court building where most of the casualties took place – it was triggered to coincide with the passing of a bus full of law students. Story from AP:

One bomb tore apart the front of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) building. A second blew apart a bus packed with university students outside the Supreme Court.

Algeria has been hit by a number of bomb attacks this year — in which scores of people have been killed — and most have been claimed by Al-Qaeda.

Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni said a suicide bomber triggered the explosion outside the Algiers office of the UNHCR.

The front of the red brick building was badly damaged and the UNHCR said staff were among the casualties.

In the second near-simultaneous attack, a car bomb was detonated outside the Supreme Court as a bus packed with university students passed by, heading for a nearby law faculty.

Security sources said the bus took the full force of the blast and most of the dead and injured there were students.

“The death toll is very high,” the minister told reporters without giving a figure.

Hospital sources said 52 people were killed in the two attacks but did not give a breakdown. They added that several foreigners were among the seriously injured.

UPDATE: Death toll Climbs to 62

UPDATE II: Jammiewearin Fool notes that AQ has now claimed credit.

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To bring you up to date, the offensive in Swat continues with the government reporting 230 Taliban killed and 150 captured. On Friday they took over Fazlullah’s madrassa compound and sealed it off. They also razed his and his key aide’s homes. The remaining TNSM fled to the North and east into higher mountainous country.

Above them lies Chitral, to the East Pakistani controlled Kashmir, and to the West are passages to the Kunar valley in Afghanistan. The elevation of the valley floors they are are in is about 4,300 feet, with peaks surrounding them rising to as high as 11,000 feet.

The pursuit after this will be slow going since the Pak army has a policy of taking all surrounding high ground before advancing. (This is something that was pointed out as a failure of the troops who got captured earlier this year.) In December at those elevations the options for the Taliban are running out as many of the high passes and paths are blocked by Ice and snow.

There are reports coming from Paris that a Parcel bomb has killed one person with others injured or in shock. This story is just breaking, more to come.

Apparently a package was left at a lawyer’s office and the secretary who opened it was killed in the blast.

From AP:

PARIS (AP) — A parcel bomb exploded in central Paris on Thursday, killing one person and seriously injuring another, the Interior Ministry said.

The ministry said several other people were suffering from shock. It did not say who might have been behind the bombing.

According to Earth times the bomb exploded at a building housing mostly law firms, including one founded by France’s current President, Sarkozy.

One person was killed and five were injured Thursday when a package exploded near the offices of a Paris law firm founded by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, France-Info radio reported Thursday. The victim and most of the injured worked for some of the law firms housed in the building in the elegant Eight Arrondissement in central Paris.
One of those firms was co-founded by Sarkozy in 1987 and bore his name until May 9 of this year, a week before he was sworn in as president.
No connection has yet been made between Sarkozy’s tie to the firm and the bombing.

In other news from France, unrelated at this time, two members of the Basque Tribal Nationalist group ETA were arrested by French authorities for shooting two Spanish police officers. from AFP:

MENDE, France (AFP) — Two suspected members of Basque separatist group ETA were arrested Wednesday over the weekend shooting of two Spanish policemen in southwest France, hours after the second officer died in hospital of his injuries.

The pair, a man and a woman, were carrying large amounts of cash and loaded guns but did not resist arrest at a bus stop in the remote village of Chateauneuf de Randon, a source close to the probe said.

Police had spotted the couple in the southern city of Rodez, tailing them as they went by taxi northwest to Mende, some 100 kilometres (65 miles) away, where they spent Tuesday night in a hotel before heading, again by taxi, to Chateauneuf, 30 kilometres (20 miles) further on.

“It was the couple the police had been hunting for three days,” the source said.

They were transferred to Paris late Wednesday, investigators said.