The attack came one day after the army said it defused three home-made bombs near a military checkpoint in the Kabylie region.
Two car bombs killed at least 37 people, including 11 UN employees, in Algiers on December 11.
The military-backed government scrapped legislative elections in 1992 as the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), an Islamist party, was on its way to a comprehensive win.
An estimated 200,000 people have killed in fighting since then.
The violence had subsided, but in the past 12 months has regained some of its former intensity.