ALGIERS, Algeria &#8212 A car bombing killed 28 coast guard officers in Algeria on Saturday, just days after a blast ripped through a crowd waiting for the president. Both suspected al-Qaida-linked attacks targeted symbols of the government as it tries to wipe out an Islamic insurgency.

Although there was no claim of responsibility in either attack, al-Qaida’s North African affiliate has carried out a spate of recent bombings that have shattered the Algerian government’s efforts – successful until recently – to restore calm after a 15-year Islamist insurgency.

The government has responded by intensifying military crackdowns on Islamic militants hiding out in remote scrubland. Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni warned terrorists Friday that they have “one choice: turn themselves in, or die.”

In Saturday’s blast, explosives planted in a van ripped through barracks in the northern coastal town of Dellys, about 30 miles from the capital, Algiers. The bombing appeared timed to kill as many officers as possible, when they were grouped together to raise the flag.

It was not immediately clear whether the bomber was killed in the blast or escaped.

The 28 victims were all coast guard officials, hospital authorities said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. About 20 others were injured.

It was Algeria’s deadliest attack since April, when triple suicide bombings against the prime minister’s office and a police station killed 32.

Jean-Maurice Ripert, France’s ambassador to the U.N. and president of the Security Council, condemned the bombing in a statement in New York, calling it a “heinous terrorist attack.”