TWO private Algerian newspapers failed to appear yesterday as the country mourned 18 victims of huge car bomb blasts that also left dozens injured and damaged the headquarters of several independent newspapers.
The blast at the Maison de la Presse on Sunday killed the editor in chief and two journalists of the daily Le Soir d'Algerie.
The explosion injured 54 people, 20 of them seriously, according to the latest casualty figures. Most of the victims were passers by.
By early yesterday, nobody had admitted responsibility for the attack, but the most radical Islamist movement, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), was widely suspected.
Journalists are a prime target of the GIA. Some 50 have paid with their lives for the largely hostile press campaign against the Islamists.
Sunday's blast devastated the offices of Le Soir and damaged those of Le Matin and L'Opinion. The front pages of the latter two were yesterday published by other private papers, united in denouncing the "carnage".