ALGIERS: Eleven people were killed and 32 wounded in a suicide bombing at the Cherchell military academy west of Algiers, the defence ministry said Saturday according to APS news agency.
A hospital source had earlier put the toll in the attack late Friday at 18 dead and dozens wounded.
The ministry said nine officers and two civilians were among the dead. Twenty-six wounded had been discharged but six people were still in hospital, one in critical condition.
The figures were the first to be published by an official source, a day after the twin suicide attack about 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of the Algerian capital around 10 minutes after the breaking of the Ramadan fast.
The ministry branded the attack "appalling and terrorist" and attributed it to "criminal gangs" targeting objects that would be of media interest.
According to El Watan newspaper, the suicide bombers tried to cause as many casualties as possible by targeting the officers' mess just as all the soldiers were assembled to break the fast.
Ramadan is generally considered a good time for holy war, or jihad, by Islamist groups. Since the fast started in early August, there have been many attacks east of Algiers, especially in Kabylia, targeting the army and police.
Authorities generally remain tight-lipped about such incidents which have not ended despite a policy of national reconciliation adopted in the early 2000s by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Most attacks are attributed to Al-Qaeda's North African offshoot, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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