1 The exiled leadership of Algeria's outlawed Muslim fundamentalist movement Thursday condemned this week's car-bombing in Algiers and suggested the attack that killed 42 people was a plot to justify government repression.
2 No one has claimed responsibility for Monday's bombing in downtown Algiers, which injured 286 people. The military-backed government blames Muslim extremists who have been waging a three-year insurgency aimed at installing an Islamic state.
3 The Islamic Salvation Front, banned after authorities cancelled 1992 legislative elections it was favored to win, issued a communique from its headquarters-in-exile in Europe denouncing 'this hateful act which cost the lives of so many innocent Algerians.
4 The front 'wonders about the secretive, shadowy parties that carried out this base plot in order to justify the policy of repression pursued by the military junta since the January 1992 coup d'etat,' said the statement, faxed to The Associated Press bureau in Paris.
5 The government's security policy is to 'liquidate and eradicate all representative opposition,' the statement said.
6 In a separate statement, the Salvation Front's No. 2 leader condemned a plan for presidential elections this summer, calling it a ploy by a corrupt government that will only intensify the insurgency.
7 Algeria's leading opposition parties have already dismissed the plan for elections. They say the plan is premature given the climate of violence and illegitimate if elections exclude the Salvation Front.
8 The statement by Ali Belhadj further dashed hopes for a breakthrough.
9 'The coming presidential elections when the country is suffering . will not solve the crisis,' Belhadj wrote in a letter published Wednesday in the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat.
10 'It will make the crisis more dangerous,' he said. The letter was dated Friday and addressed to Algeria's communication minister. Al-Hayat did not say how it obtained the letter.
11 Belhadj is under house arrest. His release from prison last year was seen as a conciliatory move by the government, but violence by security forces and militants has since escalated.
12 In the letter, Belhadj also accused the government of corruption and devising the elections as a cover to 'protect the criminals from the masses and hide the contracts and money deals they signed without the knowledge of the people.'
13 President Liamine Zeroual has reiterated his intention to hold the elections this year. His government is resisting pressure to open talks on the basis of a proposal drafted in January in Rome by the main legal opposition parties and the Salvation Front.
14 The conflict began in January 1992 after the army cancelled the parliamentary elections. More than 15,000 people, including about 80 foreigners, have been killed in the fighting between the militants and security forces.

The Islamic Salvation Front , banned after authorities cancelled 1992 legislative elections it was favored to win , issued a communique from its headquarters - in - exile in Europe denouncing " this hateful act which cost the lives of so many innocent Algerians .
headquarters - in - exile in Europe
Where in Europe is this headquarters?