The finger pointing was swift and sanguine in the aftermath of terror's latest toll, this one from twin blasts in Algiers, the Algerian capital, one targeting the Algerian Constitutional Council, the other the building where the United Nation's High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has its Algerian offices. UNHCR has been in Algeria since 1976, with a staff of about 12 in Algiers. One UN staffer was confirmed among the dead, whose numbers have fluctuated between 22 and 60.

The bombings overtook headlines around the world, with some focus on the date's symbolism even in the New York Times. The paper, along with bloggers, are pointing out that this is the fourth time a major bombing takes place on the 11th of the month--Sept. 11, 2001 in New York, March 11, 2004 in Madrid, April 11, 2002 in Djerba, and April 11, 2007 in Algeria. But a little too much can be made of that alleged symbolism when a slightly larger picture of terrorist blasts is taken. The London bombing, for example, wasn't an 11th (July 7, rather). That's especially true in Algeria, where Tuesday morning's bombings are only the latest in a grim run since 2006:

• Oct. 30, 2006: Two car bombs explode near police stations in Reghaia and Dergana, suburbs of Algiers, killing three and wounding 24. A Salafist Algerian group recently allied with al-Qaeda takes responsibility.
• Dec. 10, 2006: Just west of Algiers, a bomb aimed at foreign oil workers traveling in a bus kills the Algerian driver and one Lebanese worker. The Salafist group takes responsibility.
• January 2007: The Salafist group assumes the name al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
• Feb. 13, 2007: Seven bombs explode simultaneously in the northern Algerian provinces of Boumedres and Tizi Ouzou. The bombs target police stations. No casualties. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb takes responsibility.
• March 4, 2007: A bomb targets Russian employees building a gas pipeline some 55 miles southwest of Algiers. Three Algerians and one Russian are killed. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb takes responsibility.
• April 11, 2007: The blasts target the government's palace in Algiers and a police station, killing 33 and wounding 222. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb takes responsibility.
• July, 2007: A suicide bomber in a truck explodes east of Algiers, killing eigh soldiers in a barrack at Lakhdaria, east of Algiers. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb takes responsibility.
• Sept. 6, 2007: Just 45 minutes before the arrival of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in the town of Batna, southeast of Algiers, a suicide bomber kills 23 people. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb takes responsibility.
• Sept. 8, 2007: A truck bomb targeting Algerian military barracks at Dellys, in the eastern part of the country, kills 30. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb takes responsibility.
• Dec. 11, 2007: Twin blasts in Algiers, targeting Algerian government and United Nations buildings, kill between 22 and 60 people.

Still, bloggers were quick to unholster wild speculations. Hichicha, an Algerian blogger writing from Paris, put it this way (my translation from his French):

And so it is, we'll never be done with this type of Algerian savagery. They'll tell us of course that it's al-Qaeda's doing, and that it's even Martians who have it in for the Algerian people, etc. etc. Until when will the Algerian state do business by way of horrid attacks against poor, innocent citizens?

A commenter called Kamal didn't take kindly to Hichicha's suggestion, but responded with equally speculative prejudices:

Always the same sort of irresponsible commentary incriminating the Algerian state!!! What you say is serious, you're out of your depth here, it's not music anymore. Quit speculating, why not talk of the symbolism of "11" (September for the United States, April and December for Algeria), reflected in each Algerian attack, signaling al-Qaeda's affiliation with this sort of bombing, itself suspected of being machinated by American imperialism. And you know that certain hawks at the Pentagon have their eyes on Algeria...

Daniel Martin Varisco, writing at Tabsir, a blog that promises (and delivers) "insights on Islam and the Middle East," takes on prejudices and the convention that it's all al-Qaeda all the time from a more convincing angle:

I am reminded of the famous Bogart line near the end of Casablanca: “Round up the usual suspects, Louis.” This is not because the real criminals might get away, but because it is convenient to have scapegoats. The foment in Algeria predates Osama’s cavity-prone call for jihad against a Western bully and it was local. The renaming of the earlier militant group as the al-Qaida Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb is hardly a dangerous expansion of a coordinated global terrorism plot, but rather a sign that the religiously veneered violence of the 90s has been repudiated by the vast majority of Algerians. If a few of the die-easy locals are jumping on the Osama bin Laden bandwagon, it means the wind has been taken out of the sails of their earlier efforts. Targeting Algiers is first and foremost about Algeria, not the presence of American troops on the sacred desert sand of Saudi Arabia.

The only thing that can be said with near certainty is that we haven't seen the last of the bombings, in the Maghreb or elsewhere.

See also:

• Algeria: Country Profile
• Osama: Dead or Alive?