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Two bombs in two days explode in France

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October 7, 1995
Web posted at: 9:15 a.m. EDT (1315 GMT)

PARIS (CNN) -- A second bomb in as many days exploded in France Saturday morning, this time outside a police station in Toulouse. No injuries and little damage were reported. Thirteen people, including two police officers, were injured in Paris on Friday when a bomb exploded outside a subway station.

Police could not say whether the Toulouse blast was connected to a series of bomb blasts in France beginning in July. An anonymous caller to a French radio station Friday claimed that the Paris explosion was the work of the "Armed Islamic Group general command," an Algerian group fighting to overthrow the former French colony's military government.

Reuters received a statement Saturday in which the Armed Islamic Group claimed responsibility for the recent wave of attacks. The statement said the group would continue "our holy struggle and military strikes."

Bomb squad members had been called to the scene Friday outside the Mainson Blanche subway station after a mailman spotted a suspicious bag in a garbage can. But the device -- a cooking gas canister -- exploded before they could dismantle it. The nuts-and-bolts filled canister was similar to bombs used in several attacks that have now killed seven and wounded about 130 in France since July 25, when another Paris subway station was the target.

Friday's blast occurred just hours after the burial near Lyon of Algerian Khaled Kelkal, 24, suspected of involvement in the wave of bombings in Paris and Lyon.

Kelkal died a week ago in a shoot-out with French paratroopers. He had been the object of a massive manhunt after investigators say they found his fingerprints on an unexploded bomb found along a high-speed train track outside Lyon. Maison Blanche, the name of the subway station where the bomb exploded, is also the name of the bus stop where Kelkal was killed.

French authorities have instituted unprecedented security measures since the bombings began in July, but even sealing the garbage cans along Paris' main streets failed to prevent Friday's bombing.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story



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