Algeria investigates deadly car bombing

ALGIERS, Algeria, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Algeria appointed a federal commission to investigate a suicide car bombing east of Algiers that killed three people and injured 23 others, local media said.

The Algerian Press Service said the attack Tuesday targeted the police station in Thenia, about 30 miles east of the capital. Witnesses said the driver accelerated toward the building and police opened fire on the car before it exploded a few feet short of the building, causing heavy damage.

The blast was destroyed as many as 20 houses and shops, the news agency said.

The new commission is also charged with caring for the homeless and displaced, CNN reported.

Al-Qaida and other Islamist militants have been stepping up attacks in Algeria and other North African countries in the past two years, the reports said.