ALGIERS, July 24, 2008 (AFP) - A suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up and injured 13 Algerian soldiers in an attack in Lakhdaria, 70 kilometres (45 miles) east of Algiers, newspapers reported Thursday.

He reportedly slammed his motorbike laden with explosives into a military vehicle that was on its way back to barracks following a patrol on Wednesday.

On June 8 a French engineer and his Algerian driver were killed in a bomb attack in the same area that was claimed by the north African wing of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.