Islamists kill 8 Algerians - report

2003-01-09 13:18

Algiers - Eight Algerian soldiers were killed in an ambush by Islamist militants accused of links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, local newspapers reported on Thursday.

The latest killings push the year's death toll over 100 in just nine days, which have included the deadliest attack since civil war erupted more than a decade ago after the army moved to block Islamists from taking power.

The newspapers, Le Matin and La Depeche de Kabylie, said two bombs were set off by remote control as troops made a routine patrol on Tuesday evening in the Tizi Ouzou region 100 kilometres from the capital, Algiers.

They blamed the attack on the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), and said members of the group have links to al-Qaeda. The United States has also accused the GSPC of ties to bin Laden's militant group.

The GSPC also carried out an ambush on Saturday that killed at least 39 paratroopers and four armed civilian guides. Newspapers have since said the death toll from that attack has climbed to 49.

Algeria has been gripped by unrest which has claimed at least 150 000 lives since the army moved in January 1992 to call off the second round of parliamentary elections that a Muslim fundamentalist party was poised to win.

Algerian officials say a top al-Qaeda operative, Emad Abdelwahid Ahmed Alwan from Yemen, was killed in September in the Batna region where Saturday's attack took place. He was reportedly in charge of north Africa for al-Qaeda. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA