Rebels kill 8 guards in Algeria

2006-10-17 14:36

Algiers - Suspected Islamic rebels shot dead eight Algerian municipal guards in the worst attack on government security forces since the expiry of an amnesty aimed at ending years of strife, said reports on Tuesday.

It was reported that the victims were praying near a checkpoint in Ain Defla province, about 150km southwest of the capital, Algiers, after about 12 Islamic militants attacked them late on Sunday.

The assailants, believed to belong to the al-Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), took the victims' weapons before fleeing to a neighbouring village.

The authorities were not immediately available for comment.

Bouteflika vows to crush militants

The attack came three days after rebels killed the head of a provincial council, near Tizi Ouzou, the main city in the Kabylie region east of Algiers.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika had vowed to crush militants refusing to surrender after the six-month amnesty expired on August 31.

The government said that up to 300 guerrillas had surrendered since it came into force on February 28, but experts said several hundred more die-hard rebels were still fighting.

Most were believed to belong to the GSPC, which was on a United States list of terrorist organisations.

The insurgency and the military's efforts to crush it had killed up to 200 000 people since the revolt broke out in 1992 after the authorities cancelled parliamentary elections that a now-banned radical Islamist party was poised to win.

The amnesty gave immunity to any rebel who surrendered, provided they had not committed massacres, rape or bombings of public places.

- Reuters