Rebel bomb derails train
2006-09-30 20:37
Algiers - Suspected Algerian rebels blew up a railway line on Friday night, derailing a cargo train but causing no casualties, said the official APS news agency on Saturday.
The agency quoted a security source as saying that the home-made bomb had exploded along the railway line in Bouira province, 120km east of the capital Algiers.
The source said the attack was a "criminal act", but did not identify those behind the blast.
The bomb exploded in an area seen as a stronghold for the allegedly al-Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
The attack took place three days after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika vowed to crush Islamic fighters who had rejected his six-month amnesty to surrender.
The amnesty expired on August 31.
About 300 fighters have surrendered since the amnesty came into force on February 28, according to the government.
But experts say several hundred more die-hard rebels are still fighting.
Most are believed to belong to GSPC, which the United States has named on its list of terrorist organisations.
The amnesty gives immunity to any rebel who surrenders, provided they have not committed massacres, rape or bombings of public places.
The insurgency and the military's efforts to crush the rebels have cost about 200 000 lives since 1992, when the authorities cancelled parliamentary elections that a now-banned Islamic party was poised to win.
- Reuters