By Lamine Chikhi ALGIERS, April 16 (Reuters) - The founder of the group that claimed responsibility for last week's deadly Algiers bombings called on militants to put down their weapons under a government amnesty and stop trying to turn Algeria into a "second Iraq". Hassan Hattab made the comments in a letter to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika published on Monday by Echorouk daily after three bombs exploded in Algiers on Wednesday killing 33 people. He described the group that claimed responsibility for the bombings, which changed its name in January from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) to al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, as "a small group that wants to transform Algeria into a second Iraq". "I call on the militants to give up the fight and join national reconciliation," said Hattab, also known as Abu Hamza. "We urge the President to reopen the national reconciliation file and extend its deadline. I can thump those seeking to take Algeria to its painful past," he added without elaborating. Hattab remains an influential figure among Islamist fighters even though the group he helped found is now headed by another man, Abdelmalek Droudkel, also known as Abu Musab Abdul Wadud. The explosions raised fears that the north African oil- and gas-exporting country might return to the intense political violence of the 1990s when tens of thousands of Islamist guerrillas fought the army to try to set up Islamic rule. Bouteflika offered an amnesty for Islamist rebels last year as part of a peace and reconciliation policy aimed at ending almost 15 years of political violence in Algeria. More than 2,000 rebels were freed from jail and dozens of fighters surrendered under the amnesty, which lasted from late February to late August 2006. Droudkel has rejected the amnesty offer and it is not known whether Hattab himself has officially accepted amnesty. But speculation Hattab had won some sort of accommodation with the government arose last year when he gave an interview in Algeria to the Asharq al-Awsat daily supporting the amnesty. Algeria plunged into conflict when militants unleashed a holy war or jihad after the army cancelled elections in 1992, which the radical Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was set to win. Authorities then feared an Iranian style revolution and up to 200,000 people were killed during the Islamic uprising. The GSPC was formed in 1998 when Hattab broke away from the Armed Islamic Group in protest at its massacres of civilians. He said the GSPC would focus its attacks on police and soldiers. ORIGINAL ISLAMIST REBELS CONDEMN ATTACKS The founders of the FIS, Abassi Madani and Ali Belhadj, also condemned the attacks."Al Qaeda made a big mistake in using violence in a country in desperate need of a political solution," Madani, who lives in Qatar, was quoted as telling daily El Khabar, adding: "We can't stay silent." Belhadj said: "They were inadmissible acts that targeted innocent people." The FIS remains banned and a state of emergency imposed in 1992 remains in place. Overseas-based FIS leaders Rabah Kebir and Anwar Haddam also condemned the attacks. From Germany where he lives, Kebir said in a statement: "The acts were criminal and unjustified because they targeted the Algerian people and its institutions." Washington-based Haddam said: "You can't serve our people by killing innocent Algerians."
