Bir Roumi it probably was, well spotted.
It's been a couple of days so here is some more bad news:
Algérie*: L’axe Tamanrasset-Djanet interdit aux touristes
Optimistically interpreted, it only means the
transit of tours between Hoggar (Tam) and Ajjer (Illizi wilaya) is forbidden, not tours down there full stop. So if you stay in one wilaya (province) you should be OK (you can see the province boundaries on Google Earth).
AFAIR, this transit was banned anyway following 2003, but tours were doing it as long as they kept off the Serenoute route (as we did a year ago and in December 06).
As the report says,
les régions du Hoggar et du Tassili des Ajjers, considérées comme les principaux pôles touristique en Algérie, so it's more of a shame for first time fly-ins wanting to see the classic spots. In your own car there is plenty to see without doing Tam - Djanet.
Ch