Cemetery bomb kills 3
2005-01-23 13:19
Algiers - Three women were killed and five other people wounded when a bomb exploded in mausoleum near the Algerian capital, residents said on Saturday.
The device had been left in a bag in the mausoleum in the Ain Romana cemetery near the town of Mouzaia, 70km southwest of Algiers.
It exploded on Friday afternoon as the cemetery was crowded during the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, the residents told reporters on Saturday, blaming the attack on Islamic extremists.
The funerals of the three women killed took place on Saturday.
Algeria's Islamist insurgency has left some 150 000 people dead since 1992 but is now markedly on the wane following successes by security forces.
According to an official toll and press reports, at least 34 people have been killed so far this year.
Press reports said Saturday three people were killed in separate incidents in Algeria involving armed Islamists.
A soldier had his throat cut when he was stopped at a fake roadblock at Adekar, 260km east of Algiers, and a young man was killed and two wounded when a group set on them with clubs at Kadiria, southeast of the capital, the report said.
In the third incident, which like the others happened on Wednesday, a gunman was shot dead by troops in the Boukhlil region near Djelfa, 270km south of Algiers.
Newspapers also reported the arrest on Wednesday of a "dangerous terrorist", named as Ahmed Beshairi, at Chlef, west of Algiers. He was said to have headed an armed group since 1992 and committed a number of killings in the region.