(Adds analyst comments) ALGIERS, Aug 14 (Reuters) - A bomb attack on a car on Tuesday seriously wounded a former senior Islamist rebel who had accepted an Algerian government amnesty, an aide and hospital sources said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Mustapha Kertali, a founder of the banned Salvation Islamic Front (FIS) and once a leading member of its armed wing, but officials usually blame Islamist militants for bombings. "The explosion tore off one of his legs but his life is not in danger," said Madani Mezrag, former head of the disbanded armed wing. A hospital source said Kertali, who was driving away from a mosque in the town of Larbaa, 30 km (18 miles) south of Algiers, when the bomb exploded, was in intensive care. An Islamist uprising was sparked in 1992 when the army, fearing an Iranian-style revolution, scrapped legislative elections the FIS was poised to win. Since 1992 up to 200,000 people have been killed in Africa's second-largest country. Experts estimate several hundred guerrillas are still fighting in pockets of territory east of Algiers and in parts of the desert south. Most are believed to belong to the al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). Kertali surrendered to authorities in 2000 under an amnesty. He supported another amnesty for rebels that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika issued last year as part of a wider national reconciliation plan to draw a final line under the bloodshed. A leading analayst said Tuesday's attack was part of militant efforts to destabilise Algeria. "The wave of violence is carried out by those who oppose reconciliation," said Said Guecemi, a political science professor at Algiers university. "Stability does not serve them. They will not give up bloodshed until they are wiped out." Al Qaeda's North Africa wing said in a statement posted on the Internet last month it was planning a violent campaign against "infidels" and government forces in the Maghreb region. It urged Muslims to stay away from possible targets.
