Rumours that have built over the past few weeks, of gunshots being heard at the Zeralda Palace on 16 July, have received further corroboration more recently. However, the story behind these shots is still not clear. This week’s Algeria Politics & Security examines possible explanations.

Sources on the ground have come up with a variety of different possible explanations for the gunshots, ranging from a failed coup d’état to an assassination attempt of the president’s brother, Saïd Bouteflika. The most widely accepted explanation so far is that the shots were fired during a clash between officers of the Republican Guard and the presidential guard. Another plausible story is that there was a fight between generals or officers over support for the army’s Chief of Staff, General Ahmed Gaïd Salah.

The Algerian newspaper El Watan offered two possible explanations. According to one of their sources, gunmen tried to enter the Zeralda residence at dawn, provoking members of the Republican Guard to open fire. Another source told El Watan that the intruders were unarmed youths who, coming from the woods behind the palace, had managed to scale the perimeter. The presidency, unhappy with the guards’ handling of the incident, punished those responsible for presidential security: Medjdoub and Meliani.

However, El Watan’s explanation seems unsatisfactory. The woods behind the Zeralda residency, which are perceived as a serious security threat, have recently become increasingly well secured. Such a lapse on the security around the perimeter of the residence is therefore unlikely.

Whether there was indeed a security breach, or an internal problem with the armed groups responsible for guarding the palace, it seems evident that the controversy surrounding the gunshots was used in part to dismiss several senior military leaders.

Shortly after the incident, three of Algeria’s top security generals were dismissed, as reported in our previous blog post. These included General Djamel Kehal Medjdoub, the head of the Direction générale de la sécurité et de la protection présidentielle (DGSPP); General Ahmed Moulay Meliani, head of the Republican Guard; and General Ali Bendaoud, head of the DRS’ Internal Security Directorate (DSI).