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P 060805Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY ALGIERS
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7279
INFO AMEMBASSY RABAT 
AMEMBASSY TUNIS 
AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI
AMEMBASSY BAMAKO 
AMEMBASSY PARIS

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