The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed condolences to the relatives of Russian citizen Alexander Derevyakin, who died as a result of a terrorist attack in Algeria. The tragedy occurred on the evening of March 3, 130 km south of the Algerian capital. On the route of two vehicles with specialists from Stroytransgaz OJSC, who were returning to the base camp from the site of laying a gas pipeline to the Shershel thermal power plant, two landmines exploded. Derevyakin died, as did three Algerians from the escort. Another Russian, Yuri Korvyakov, and two Ukrainian citizens, Sergei Ivanov and Gavrila Cherevkov, were wounded. Now they are in the central military hospital of the city of Algiers. It is believed that the terrorist attack was carried out by militants from the Salafi Group for Preaching and Jihad, formed in 1997 with the support of Osama Bin Laden. But so far, press attache of the Russian Embassy in Algeria Sergei Gogolev told Vremya Novostei, not a single radical group has claimed responsibility for the explosions. This is not the first time that Russian citizens have become victims of an attack by Islamic militants in Algeria. In January 2001, four Russians, employees of a chemical company, died. They were kidnapped in the forest where they were picking mushrooms and killed by having their throats cut.
