At 7 a.m. local time Aug. 19, a vehicle loaded with explosives detonated in front of a police training academy in Issers, Algeria, east of Algiers in prime al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) territory. Forty-three people died and dozens of others were wounded. Most of the casualties were police recruits lined up outside the academy. The attackers recognized that the academy was a soft target that would yield a high body count. AQIM — the al Qaeda franchise most active in North and West Africa — has been very active in the past months, mounting attacks at least once a week. So far, AQIM has focused on hard targets, such as police officers or police stations, military barracks and soldiers on patrol or in transit, as well as the occasional attack on a government building. Vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) have commonly been used in attacks in Algeria, and militants also frequently have employed suicide attacks. The target selection distinguishes this attack. This is not the first time AQIM attacks have taken civilian lives. An attack on a U.N. building in Algiers in December 2007 targeted foreign influence in Algeria, but killed many civilian bystanders. Since that incident and the condemnation that it brought against the group, AQIM has scaled down its attacks, avoiding the deaths of civilians for the most part by keeping attacks isolated and small. But that strategy has also reduced AQIM's profile, making it appear less of a threat, as the death toll from recent attacks has rarely reached double digits. By striking at the police academy, AQIM is using the same tactics that al Qaeda in Iraq used in 2004 and 2005. Following the failure to strike directly at U.S. forces, the group focused its attention on the local population by striking soft targets, such as police or military recruiting stations, to intimidate locals from working for government security forces. The effects in Iraq, however, did not benefit al Qaeda in Iraq; locals viewed the attacks as being against their own people, not against a foreign presence. Eventually, these tactics pushed Iraqis into accepting security guarantees from U.S. forces, meaning al Qaeda in Iraq's tactics ultimately damaged its strategic position in Iraq. The residents of Isser and other Algerian towns in AQIM territory probably will take particular notice of this attack given the high death toll and because of who was killed. The potential recruits targeted were still civilians, and attacking local civilians does not tend to go down well with the local population. AQIM must continue attacks to maintain its profile. But if what happened in Iraq is any indication of what is to come, hitting soft targets will lead to weakened local support.