ATTACK ON CONVOY CARRYING CHINESE WORKERS

UNCLAS ALGIERS 000327


DEPT FOR DS/IP/NEA, DS/ICI/CI, DS/IP/ITA AND NEA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ASEC PTER PGOV AG
SUBJECT: ATTACK ON CONVOY CARRYING CHINESE WORKERS


1. On March 29 at approximately 20:00 a group of men
presumed to be associated with Al-Qa'ida in the Islamic
Maghreb (AQIM) attacked a convoy carrying Chinese workers
employed by STIC CARC, a contracting company engaged in the
construction of a highway linking the municipalities of El
Ajiba and Bordj Bouarreridj (approx 100 mi SE of Algiers in
the wilaya of Bouira). The attackers used crude handmade
rockets known locally as "heb-hebs," from the sound they make
when launched. No injuries were reported among the workers,
but two gendarmes in a vehicle escorting the convoy were
injured.


2. Chinese workers were previously attacked in May 2008 in
the same region. In that instance, a roadside bomb was
detonated as the convoy escorting the workers passed by.
Several gendarmes were injured in that attack, but no Chinese
worker sustained injuries. Police told RSO that the bus
carrying the Chinese workers dropped off and picked up at the
same time each day, taking the same route to and from the
work site.


3. Local papers asserted that the same terrorist unit that
attacked workers employed by the French company Razel and the
Canadian firm SNC Lavalin in August 2008 was also responsible
for both attacks against the Chinese. Security forces
reportedly launched a search operation in the forested area
near the attack site in an attempt to locate the assailants,
but no further reports have emerged concerning the success of
that operation.


PEARCE