DUBAI, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - The Maghreb branch of Al-Qaeda claimed it was behind two suicide bombings in Algeria, claiming they had killed at least 38 people including police and soldiers, web monitoring group SITE said.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said in a statement issued on jihadist forums that its fighters were behind an attack on August 3 in Algeria's eastern Kabylie region which the authorities said wounded 25 people, according to SITE.

It also claimed an attack on July 23, in which police said a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up and injured 13 Algerian soldiers in Lakhdaria, also east of Algiers.

'Our fingers are on the triggers... the caravans of the martyrs long to crush your fortifications in defense of our Muslim ummah (nation),' the statement said, according to SITE Intelligence Group.