A car bomb killed 10 people in eastern Algeria on Saturday, a security source said, two days after a suicide blast condemned by the government as a rebel bid to wreck efforts to end political violence. ADVERTISEMENT Residents in the Mediterranean port town of Dellys 100 km (62 miles) east of Algiers reported hearing a large explosion. "I heard a big blast at about 8 this morning (0800 GMT) and I found out that it targeted the port of the city, probably a military facility there," Saeed Hamdaoui, 28, said. "Then we heard ambulances." There was no immediate confirmation a military target had been attacked. The blast happened two days after a suicide bombing in Batna town that killed at least 20 people including the attacker. The bomber in Batna blew himself up among a crowd waiting to see the president arrive on a scheduled visit to the town 430 km (270 miles) southeast of Algiers. It was the first time a suicide attacker in Algeria has detonated a bomb strapped to his body, rather than using a car bomb, Algerians say. Bouteflika blamed Islamist rebels for the Batna blast, denouncing them as "criminals" trying to scuttle his policy of national reconciliation. The policy is aimed at ending 15 years of fighting between the army and groups trying to set up a purist Islamic state. Conflict broke out in Algeria in 1992 after military-backed authorities scrapped parliamentary elections that an Islamist party was set to win. The authorities had feared an Islamic revolution. Up to 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed. Political violence has subsided in recent years but a hard core of about 500 rebels, now grouped in the so-called al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, continues to fight mainly in the Kabylie region east of the capital Algiers. The group claimed responsibility for triple suicide bombings in Algiers on April 11 that killed 33 people, and also for a July 11 suicide truck bombing east of the Algerian capital that killed eight soldiers.