Zerhouni said police interrogations of GSPC members arrested in the wake of the April attack revealed that Algeria's Constitutional Council and Supreme Court were on a list of GSPC targets.

CNN: Rescuers search for bomb survivors

Zerhouni said the attack was the work of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the same group that took responsibility for an attack in April in downtown Algiers that killed 33 people.

CNN: Rescuers search for bomb survivors

On January 12 of this year, Tunisian Interior Minister Rafik Haj Kacem announced the dismantlement of a GSPC cell, following a three-week period of separate gun battles between Tunisian security forces and the terrorists.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Terror��s North African front

Mr Belmokhtar joined the conflict, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and became a key figure in the militant Armed Islamist Group (GIA) and later the breakaway Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

BBC: Profile: Mokhtar Belmokhtar

As explained by Fernando Reinares, an international terrorism analyst at Madrid's Elcano Institute, "The GSPC has become more committed to targeting Westerners, including civilians, and to mobilizing recruits for Iraq, " and its operatives pose a danger to southern Europe in addition to northwest Africa.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Terror's North African front